Forest Meadows, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Forest Meadows, 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 Forest Meadows 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 Forest Meadows — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Forest Meadows — the short answer
Forest Meadows, California: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Forest Meadows's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forest Meadows's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forest Meadows
Each reading below is measured for Forest Meadows itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForest Meadows runs about 265 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredForest Meadows sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Forest Meadows is in
Forest Meadows sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Forest Meadows's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Calaveras County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Forest Meadows
Every plant below cleared Forest Meadows's own zone 8b and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forest Meadows?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Forest Meadows
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forest Meadows. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOREST MEADOWS OWNERS ASSOCIATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SGM INC. /FOREST MEADOWS GOLF COURSEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- COUNTRY CAR DOCTORBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- USDA USFS R05 CALAVERAS RD (STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST)Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- USDA USFS R05 DORRINGTON CABrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Collier MineMining · 2.3 mi
- RENE FAUGHT RESTORATIONBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- ADVANCED AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- QUICK LUBEBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- TOM'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- UTICA WATER & POWER AUTHORITY/MURPHYS POWER HOUSEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- HIGHLANDS QUICK LUBEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forest Meadows'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 Forest Meadows.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Forest Meadows
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forest Meadows
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forest Meadows
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forest Meadows, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Forest Meadows — Mining (36 sites) and Brownfields (71 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Forest Meadows
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 Forest Meadows average
Your land is one point inside Forest Meadows
Everything above resolves to Forest Meadows as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K acres. 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 Forest Meadows Average
Forest Meadows Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Forest Meadows
- ●One soil character for all of Forest Meadows
- ●Frost dates read at Forest Meadows's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forest Meadows's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forest Meadows
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forest Meadows, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forest Meadows averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forest Meadows — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forest Meadows average
How we know this about Forest Meadows
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 Forest Meadows’s own record; 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 Forest Meadows
When does frost risk typically end in Forest Meadows?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forest Meadows typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Forest Meadows?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forest Meadows typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forest Meadows?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forest Meadows sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 16, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forest Meadows?
The federal record around Forest Meadows runs heavier than most — 120 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (71), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Forest Meadows?
From about Oct 31 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 Nov 30 (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 Nov 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forest Meadows's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forest Meadows'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 Forest Meadows’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Forest Meadows's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,529 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forest Meadows's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forest Meadows's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 30 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forest Meadows, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forest Meadows's boundary and the 2,529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Forest Meadows sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forest Meadows's 2,529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calaveras County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calaveras 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 Calaveras County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forest Meadows's 2,529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forest Meadows you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Forest Meadows-wide figureread your own land →
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