Grimes, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grimes, 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 Grimes 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 Grimes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grimes — the short answer
Grimes, California: USDA zone 9b, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Colusa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Colusa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- Colusa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Colusa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Grimes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grimes's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grimes
Each reading below is measured for Grimes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGrimes runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from Colusa County, the closest normal to Grimes) — 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
MeasuredGrimes 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 Grimes is in
Grimes sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Grimes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colusa County.
What Grows in Grimes
Every plant below cleared Grimes's own zone 9b and its 329-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grimes?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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 Grimes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grimes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 014N001E07R002MNitrate · 75 ft
- WESTERN FOODSBrownfields · 850 ft
- 014N001E08N006MNitrate · 1500 ft
- MOORE BROTHERS FARMSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PARK FARMINGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 014N001W12F004MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- RIVERVIEW LAND & EQUIPMENT INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 014N001W01P002MNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 014N001E16F002MNitrate · 1.8 mi
- GARY DRIVER FARMSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 014N001E16K001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 014N001W14R003MNitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grimes'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 Grimes.
Total Sites
259
within ~10 miles of Grimes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grimes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grimes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grimes, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 144 sites within ~10 miles of Grimes. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Grimes
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 Grimes average
Your land is one point inside Grimes
Everything above resolves to Grimes as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Colusa 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 Grimes Average
Grimes Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Grimes
- ●One soil character for all of Grimes
- ●Frost dates read at Grimes's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grimes's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grimes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grimes, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grimes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grimes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grimes average
How we know this about Grimes
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 Colusa 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 Grimes
When does frost risk typically end in Grimes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grimes typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Grimes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grimes typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grimes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grimes sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Nov 30, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grimes?
The federal record around Grimes is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (144), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Grimes?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grimes's scale — its 9b band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grimes'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 Grimes’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Grimes's own scale — the 1,447 acres it covers and 259 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grimes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 259 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grimes, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grimes's boundary and the 1,447 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~329-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grimes's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Grimes has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Colusa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grimes's 1,447 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colusa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colusa 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 Colusa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grimes's 1,447 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grimes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,447 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Grimes-wide figureread your own land →