French Gulch, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in French Gulch, 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 French Gulch 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 French Gulch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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French Gulch — the short answer
French Gulch, California: USDA zone 9a, about 293 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~293
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 9a is French Gulch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against French Gulch's 293-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in French Gulch
Each reading below is measured for French Gulch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFrench Gulch runs about 293 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
MeasuredFrench Gulch 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 French Gulch is in
French Gulch sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at French Gulch's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shasta County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in French Gulch
Every plant below cleared French Gulch's own zone 9a and its 293-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in French Gulch?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 French Gulch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of French Gulch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AmericanMining · 1.1 mi
- STAN LEACH TIMBER INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- MilkmaidMining · 2.1 mi
- Franklin MineMining · 2.2 mi
- GladstoneMining · 2.3 mi
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO DBA AT&T CALIFBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT-REDDINGBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- FRENCH GULCH NV MINING CORP.Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- Philadelphia and RooseveltMining · 2.6 mi
- St. JudeMining · 2.7 mi
- Rotero-StevenMining · 2.8 mi
- TruscottMining · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from French Gulch'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 French Gulch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of French Gulch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of French Gulch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around French Gulch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of French Gulch — Mining (137 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
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 French Gulch
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 French Gulch average
Your land is one point inside French Gulch
Everything above resolves to French Gulch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 French Gulch Average
French Gulch Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across French Gulch
- ●One soil character for all of French Gulch
- ●Frost dates read at French Gulch's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not French Gulch's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in French Gulch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in French Gulch, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that French Gulch averages can't show:
We read public map data around French Gulch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the French Gulch average
How we know this about French Gulch
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 French Gulch’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 French Gulch
When does frost risk typically end in French Gulch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in French Gulch typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in French Gulch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in French Gulch typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 293 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in French Gulch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, French Gulch sees about 293 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 24, about 258 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in French Gulch?
The federal record around French Gulch runs heavier than most — 167 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (137), the nearest Mining record about 1.1 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 French Gulch?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at French Gulch's scale — its 9a band and its 293-day season. Your yard writes its own version of French Gulch'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 French Gulch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at French Gulch's own scale — its own ~293-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,892 acres it covers and 167 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- French Gulch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- French Gulch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 18 and Dec 8 and the ~293-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 167 documented contamination sites on the federal record near French Gulch, the closest Mining record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- French Gulch's boundary and the 7,892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~293-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- French Gulch sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so French Gulch's 7,892 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among French Gulch's 7,892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of French Gulch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.1 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 French Gulch-wide figureread your own land →
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