Half Moon Bay, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Half Moon Bay, 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 Half Moon Bay 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 Half Moon Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Half Moon Bay — the short answer
Half Moon Bay, California: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Half Moon Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Half Moon Bay's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Half Moon Bay
Each reading below is measured for Half Moon Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHalf Moon Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Half Moon Bay is in
Half Moon Bay sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Half Moon Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Mateo County.
What Grows in Half Moon Bay
Every plant below cleared Half Moon Bay's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Documented around Half Moon Bay
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Half Moon Bay, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Half Moon Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Half Moon Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EMILY RICHARDSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS HALF MOON BAY SBBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE #308Brownfields · 1500 ft
- GREENHOUSE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- HALF MOON BAY AIRPORTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MORE FOR LESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CABRILLO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- HALF MOON BAY ALLIANCEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- BAY CHEVRON SERVICE #7927Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BAY CHEVRONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CALIFORNIA EVERGREEN NURSERYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- AT&T California - PC083Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Half Moon Bay'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 Half Moon Bay.
Total Sites
1,408
within ~10 miles of Half Moon Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Half Moon Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Half Moon Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Half Moon Bay, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,320 sites within ~10 miles of Half Moon Bay. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Half Moon Bay
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 Half Moon Bay average
Your land is one point inside Half Moon Bay
Everything above resolves to Half Moon Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Half Moon Bay Average
Half Moon Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Half Moon Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Half Moon Bay
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Half Moon Bay's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Half Moon Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Half Moon Bay, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Half Moon Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Half Moon Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Half Moon Bay average
How we know this about Half Moon Bay
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Half Moon Bay
Is it too late to plant in Half Moon Bay?
No — Half Moon Bay has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Half Moon Bay?
It doesn't — Half Moon Bay records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Half Moon Bay?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Half Moon Bay contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Half Moon Bay?
The federal record around Half Moon Bay is a meaningful one — 1,408 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,320), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Half Moon Bay's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Half Moon Bay'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 Half Moon Bay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Half Moon Bay's own scale — the 3,995 acres it covers and 1,408 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Half Moon Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Half Moon Bay — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,408 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Half Moon Bay, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Half Moon Bay's boundary and the 3,995 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Half Moon Bay's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Half Moon Bay's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Half Moon Baylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Half Moon Bay's 3,995 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 San Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Half Moon Bay's 3,995 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Half Moon Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,995 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Half Moon Bay-wide figureread your own land →