Fairview, 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.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Fairview, 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 Fairview 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 Fairview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairview — the short answer
Fairview, California: USDA zone 9b, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 12
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Alameda County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fairview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairview's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairview
Each reading below is measured for Fairview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFairview runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Alameda County, the closest normal to Fairview) — 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
MeasuredFairview 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 Fairview is in
Fairview sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Fairview's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alameda County.
What Grows in Fairview
Every plant below cleared Fairview's own zone 9b and its 334-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairview?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 12 (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.
Documented around Fairview
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Fairview, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUARRY RESERVOIRBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ALAN LOSSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- LONE TREE CEMETERYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- HAYWARD USDBrownfields · 2500 ft
- DEBRA DUBOISBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CAROLE POLKBrownfields · 2500 ft
- ORO LOMA SANITARY DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ARTHUR GURRERABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JOHN TAYLORBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- VIRGIL LOWNBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- NATE GOMEZBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- STOFFEL TRUCKINGBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairview'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 Fairview.
Total Sites
5,483
within ~10 miles of Fairview
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairview, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,717 sites within ~10 miles of Fairview. 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 Fairview
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 Fairview average
Your land is one point inside Fairview
Everything above resolves to Fairview as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Alameda 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 Fairview Average
Fairview Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fairview
- ●One soil character for all of Fairview
- ●Frost dates read at Fairview's scale: Jan 12 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairview's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairview, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairview average
How we know this about Fairview
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 Alameda 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 Fairview
When does frost risk typically end in Fairview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairview typically lands around Jan 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Fairview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairview 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 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairview sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 12 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 2 to Nov 28, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairview?
The federal record around Fairview is a meaningful one — 5,483 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,717), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Fairview?
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 Fairview's scale — its 9b band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairview'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 Fairview’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fairview's own scale — the 1,903 acres it covers and 5,483 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 5,483 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairview, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairview's boundary and the 1,903 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~334-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairview's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairviewlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fairview has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Alameda County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairview's 1,903 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alameda County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alameda 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 Alameda County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairview's 1,903 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,903 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Fairview-wide figureread your own land →