Fairmead, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairmead, 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 Fairmead 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 Fairmead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairmead — the short answer
Fairmead, California: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Madera County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Fairmead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairmead's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairmead
Each reading below is measured for Fairmead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFairmead runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Madera County, the closest normal to Fairmead) — 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
MeasuredFairmead sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Fairmead is in
Fairmead sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Fairmead's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madera County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fairmead
Every plant below cleared Fairmead's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairmead?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Fairmead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairmead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 010S016E10J001MNitrate · 0.6 mi
- MADERA COUNTY - FAIRMEAD LANDFILLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 010S016E13D001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- MADERA DISPOSAL SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 010S016E14J001MNitrate · 1.2 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 009S016E34J001MNitrate · 1.8 mi
- FRONTIER TRANSPORTATION INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- UNITED PARK INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CERTAINTEED, CHOWCHILLA PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- CERTAINTEED, CHOWCHILLA PLANTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- CALIF STATE PRISON- CHOWCHILLABrownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairmead'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 Fairmead.
Total Sites
390
within ~10 miles of Fairmead
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairmead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairmead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairmead, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fairmead — Nitrate (150 sites) and Brownfields (205 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Fairmead
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 Fairmead average
Your land is one point inside Fairmead
Everything above resolves to Fairmead as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madera 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 Fairmead Average
Fairmead Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Fairmead
- ●One soil character for all of Fairmead
- ●Frost dates read at Fairmead's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairmead's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairmead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairmead, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairmead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairmead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairmead average
How we know this about Fairmead
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 Madera 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 Fairmead
When does frost risk typically end in Fairmead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairmead typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Fairmead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairmead typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairmead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairmead sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairmead?
The federal record around Fairmead is a meaningful one — 390 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (205), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fairmead?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairmead's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairmead'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 Fairmead’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fairmead's own scale — the 4,907 acres it covers and 390 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairmead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 390 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairmead, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairmead's boundary and the 4,907 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fairmead sits in the Central California Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fairmead has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madera County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairmead's 4,907 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madera 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 Madera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairmead's 4,907 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairmead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,907 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Fairmead-wide figureread your own land →
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