Greenville, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Greenville, 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 Greenville 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 Greenville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greenville — the short answer
Greenville, California: USDA zone 7b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7b is Greenville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greenville's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Greenville's own 30-year record measures about 196 days between 28°F killing freezes — 38 days longer than Plumas County's ~158. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Greenville's ~196-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greenville
Each reading below is measured for Greenville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreenville runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGreenville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Greenville is in
Greenville sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Greenville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in Greenville
Every plant below cleared Greenville's own zone 7b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greenville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Greenville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greenville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOHAWK TRADING COMPANYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #18272Brownfields · 2100 ft
- PLUMAS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Nellz Towne PumpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- USDA USFS R05 GREENVILLE RANGER DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- AXLE'S BONEYARD LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PG&E WOLF CREEK YARDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTY/PUB WORKS DEPTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Valley ViewMining · 1.6 mi
- AT & T MOBILITYBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- MCINTYRE & WINEBARGER CONSTRUCTION INC DBA RIDGELINE CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greenville'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 Greenville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greenville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greenville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greenville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Greenville. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Greenville
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 Greenville average
Your land is one point inside Greenville
Everything above resolves to Greenville as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Greenville Average
Greenville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Greenville
- ●One soil character for all of Greenville
- ●Frost dates read at Greenville's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greenville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greenville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greenville, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greenville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greenville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greenville average
How we know this about Greenville
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 Greenville’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 Greenville
When does frost risk typically end in Greenville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greenville typically lands around Apr 20, 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 May 11.
When is the first frost in Greenville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greenville typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greenville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greenville sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 19, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greenville?
The federal record around Greenville shows 51 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (35), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Greenville?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greenville's scale — its 7b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greenville'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 Greenville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Greenville's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,116 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greenville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greenville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 2 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greenville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greenville's boundary and the 5,116 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greenville's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Greenville's 5,116 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greenville's 5,116 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greenville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,116 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 Greenville-wide figureread your own land →