Hat Creek, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hat Creek, 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 Hat Creek 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 Hat Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hat Creek — the short answer
Hat Creek, California: USDA zone 7a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 32K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 32K 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 7a is Hat Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hat Creek's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hat Creek
Each reading below is measured for Hat Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHat Creek runs about 166 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
MeasuredHat Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Hat Creek is in
Hat Creek sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Hat Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shasta County.
What Grows in Hat Creek
Every plant below cleared Hat Creek's own zone 7a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hat Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Hat Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hat Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 034N004E15M001MNitrate · 2.4 mi
- U C BERKELEY HAT CREEK OBSERVBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Old Station Fill-Up & Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- CALTRANS D2 MAINTENANCE HAT CREEK MSBrownfields · 8.1 mi
- FALL RIVER J.U. SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 8.5 mi
- BOYD TRUCKING COBrownfields · 9.8 mi
- 035N004E06J001MNitrate · 9.9 mi
Measured from Hat Creek'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 Hat Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hat Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hat Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Hat Creek
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 Hat Creek average
Your land is one point inside Hat Creek
Everything above resolves to Hat Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 32K 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 Hat Creek Average
Hat Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hat Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Hat Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Hat Creek's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hat Creek's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hat Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hat Creek, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hat Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hat Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hat Creek average
How we know this about Hat Creek
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 Hat Creek’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 Hat Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Hat Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hat Creek typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Hat Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hat Creek typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hat Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hat Creek sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 26, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hat Creek?
The federal record around Hat Creek is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (4), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hat Creek?
From about Sep 10 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 Oct 10 (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 Oct 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hat Creek's scale — its 7a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hat Creek'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 Hat Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hat Creek's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 32,008 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hat Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hat Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 10 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hat Creek, the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hat Creek's boundary and the 32,008 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hat Creek's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hat Creek's 32,008 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hat Creek's 32,008 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hat Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 32,008 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 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 Hat Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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