Garey, 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.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Garey, 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 Garey 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 Garey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garey — the short answer
Garey, California: USDA zone 9b, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 810 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 810 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 9b is Garey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garey's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garey
Each reading below is measured for Garey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarey runs about 317 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
MeasuredGarey 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 Garey is in
Garey sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Garey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Garey
Every plant below cleared Garey's own zone 9b and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garey?
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 29 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Garey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 009N033W02A001SNitrate · 1500 ft
- 009N033W02A007SNitrate · 1600 ft
- 009N033W02B001SNitrate · 2200 ft
- RUNWAY FARMSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- EAT SWEET FARMS LLC DBA TRES RIOS RANCHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 010N033W35R001SNitrate · 0.7 mi
- CALPORTLAND COMPANY GAREY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- YELLOW ASPEN GAREY RANCHBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- UNION ASPHALT INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BIEN NACIDO VINEYARDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 010N033W36A001SNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 009N033W12R001SNitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garey'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 Garey.
Total Sites
1,052
within ~10 miles of Garey
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garey, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 731 sites within ~10 miles of Garey. 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 Garey
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 Garey average
Your land is one point inside Garey
Everything above resolves to Garey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 810 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 Garey Average
Garey Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Garey
- ●One soil character for all of Garey
- ●Frost dates read at Garey's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garey's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garey, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garey average
How we know this about Garey
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 Garey’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 Garey
When does frost risk typically end in Garey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garey typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Garey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garey 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 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garey sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 28, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garey?
The federal record around Garey is a meaningful one — 1,052 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (731), the nearest Nitrate 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 Garey?
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 Garey's scale — its 9b band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garey'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 Garey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Garey's own scale — its own ~317-day season between 28°F freezes, the 810 acres it covers and 1,052 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 29 and Dec 12 and the ~317-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,052 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garey, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garey's boundary and the 810 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garey's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garey's 810 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garey's 810 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 810 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Garey-wide figureread your own land →
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