Groveland, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Groveland, 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 Groveland 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 Groveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Groveland — the short answer
Groveland, California: USDA zone 9a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Groveland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Groveland's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Groveland
Each reading below is measured for Groveland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGroveland runs about 242 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGroveland 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 Groveland is in
Groveland sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Groveland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tuolumne County.
What Grows in Groveland
Every plant below cleared Groveland's own zone 9a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Groveland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Groveland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Groveland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MINER'S MART - BW #106Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Reported OccurenceMining · 1.0 mi
- THE CLAIM JUMPER OUTPOST/GAST INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- The Claim JumperUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CAL TRANSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MOORE BROS SCAVENGER CO INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Miner's Mart - BW # 106Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GroupMining · 1.2 mi
- Big Oak Flat No. 1Mining · 1.2 mi
- BOFGUSD - BUS SHOPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- GROVELAND COMM SERVS DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Groveland'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 Groveland.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Groveland
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Groveland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Groveland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Groveland, Mining runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Groveland. 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 Groveland
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 Groveland average
Your land is one point inside Groveland
Everything above resolves to Groveland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Groveland Average
Groveland Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Groveland
- ●One soil character for all of Groveland
- ●Frost dates read at Groveland's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Groveland's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Groveland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Groveland, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Groveland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Groveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Groveland average
How we know this about Groveland
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 Groveland’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 Groveland
When does frost risk typically end in Groveland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Groveland typically lands around Mar 22, 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 Apr 12.
When is the first frost in Groveland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Groveland typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Groveland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Groveland sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 5, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Groveland?
The federal record around Groveland runs heavier than most — 108 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (50), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Groveland?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Groveland's scale — its 9a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Groveland'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 Groveland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Groveland's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,127 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Groveland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Groveland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 19 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Groveland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Groveland's boundary and the 6,127 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Groveland's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Groveland's 6,127 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Groveland's 6,127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Groveland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,127 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Groveland-wide figureread your own land →