Elverta, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Elverta, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Elverta lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Elverta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elverta — the short answer
Elverta, California: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Sacramento County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Elverta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elverta's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elverta
Each reading below is measured for Elverta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElverta runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Sacramento County, the closest normal to Elverta) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredElverta sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Elverta is in
Elverta sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Elverta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sacramento County.
What Grows in Elverta
Every plant below cleared Elverta's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elverta?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Elverta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elverta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 010N005E17H001MNitrate · 0.5 mi
- 010N005E21K001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- ELVERTA LAWN AND GARDENBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PAUL MATSUMOTOBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SHIFT MANAGEMENT INC DBA SMI TRANSMISSIONSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ORCHARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 010N005E15K001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- AUTOHAUSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SCOTT HEAVY REPAIR INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- AERIAL LIFT SERVICE CO INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- IRS CERVANTES TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- AIR BLOWN CONCRETE DBA ABC READY MIXBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elverta's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Elverta.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elverta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elverta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elverta, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,768 sites within ~10 miles of Elverta. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Elverta
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elverta average
Your land is one point inside Elverta
Everything above resolves to Elverta as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sacramento County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Elverta Average
Elverta Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Elverta
- ●One soil character for all of Elverta
- ●Frost dates read at Elverta's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elverta's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elverta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elverta, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elverta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elverta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elverta average
How we know this about Elverta
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Sacramento County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Elverta
When does frost risk typically end in Elverta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elverta typically lands around Jan 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 12.
When is the first frost in Elverta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elverta typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elverta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elverta sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 28, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elverta?
The federal record around Elverta runs heavier than most — 3,231 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,768), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elverta?
From about Nov 12 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elverta's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elverta's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Elverta’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elverta's own scale — the 5,659 acres it covers and 3,231 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elverta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,231 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elverta, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elverta's boundary and the 5,659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elverta's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elverta has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sacramento County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elverta's 5,659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sacramento County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sacramento County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sacramento County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elverta's 5,659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elverta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Elverta-wide figureread your own land →