Fort Dick, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Dick, 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 Fort Dick 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 Fort Dick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Dick — the short answer
Fort Dick, California: USDA zone 9b, about 293 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Del Norte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Del Norte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~293
- Del Norte 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 Del Norte County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fort Dick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Dick's 293-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Dick
Each reading below is measured for Fort Dick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Dick runs about 293 days between hard freezes (read from Del Norte County, the closest normal to Fort Dick) — 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
MeasuredFort Dick 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 Fort Dick is in
Fort Dick sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Fort Dick's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Del Norte County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort Dick
Every plant below cleared Fort Dick's own zone 9b and its 293-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Dick?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Fort Dick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Dick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALEXANDRE DAIRYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Fort Dick MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PACIFIC POWER DEL NORTE SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PELICAN BAY REICINSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- 017N001W04J001HNitrate · 1.7 mi
- NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- STOUFFER TRUCKING LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CALIF. DEPT OF CORRECTIONS - PELICAN BAY PRISONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CITY OF CRESCENT CITYPFAS · 1.9 mi
- 41ST DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASS./DEL NORTE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #10478Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- UNITED LILY GROWERS, INC.Brownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Dick'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 Fort Dick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Dick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Dick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Dick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Dick — Mining (51 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Fort Dick
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 Fort Dick average
Your land is one point inside Fort Dick
Everything above resolves to Fort Dick as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Del Norte 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 Fort Dick Average
Fort Dick Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fort Dick
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Dick
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Dick's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Dick's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Dick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Dick, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Dick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Dick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Dick average
How we know this about Fort Dick
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 Del Norte 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 Fort Dick
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Dick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Dick typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Fort Dick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Dick 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 293 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Dick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Dick sees about 293 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 22, about 258 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Dick?
The federal record around Fort Dick is a meaningful one — 159 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (81), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Fort Dick?
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 Fort Dick's scale — its 9b band and its 293-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Dick'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 Fort Dick’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Dick's own scale — the 2,059 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Dick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Dick, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Dick's boundary and the 2,059 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~293-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Dick sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Dick has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Del Norte County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Dick's 2,059 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Del Norte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Del Norte 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 Del Norte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Dick's 2,059 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Dick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,059 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Fort Dick-wide figureread your own land →
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