Herald, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Herald, 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 Herald 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 Herald — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Herald — the short answer
Herald, California: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Sacramento County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Herald's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Herald's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Herald
Each reading below is measured for Herald itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHerald runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Sacramento County, the closest normal to Herald) — 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
MeasuredHerald 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 Herald is in
Herald sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Herald's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sacramento County.
What Grows in Herald
Every plant below cleared Herald's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Herald?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Herald
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Herald. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARCOHE UNION SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 005N007E21D001MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- DRJ FARMSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- FARMLAND MANAGEMENT SERVICESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PACIFIC POLYMERSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 005N007E07P002MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- QUINN MULROONEYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SODBUSTER FARMSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CHARLES F. CABRALBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MCENERNEY FARMSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CONFAB MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Herald'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 Herald.
Total Sites
465
within ~10 miles of Herald
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Herald
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Herald
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Herald, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Herald — Brownfields (294 sites) and Nitrate (140 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Herald
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 Herald average
Your land is one point inside Herald
Everything above resolves to Herald as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sacramento 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 Herald Average
Herald Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Herald
- ●One soil character for all of Herald
- ●Frost dates read at Herald's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Herald's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Herald
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Herald, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Herald averages can't show:
We read public map data around Herald — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Herald average
How we know this about Herald
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 Sacramento 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 Herald
When does frost risk typically end in Herald?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Herald typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 12.
When is the first frost in Herald?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Herald typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Herald?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Herald sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 28, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Herald?
The federal record around Herald is a meaningful one — 465 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (294), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Herald?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Herald's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Herald'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 Herald’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Herald's own scale — the 5,043 acres it covers and 465 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Herald's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 465 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Herald, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Herald's boundary and the 5,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Herald's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Herald has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sacramento County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Herald's 5,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sacramento County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sacramento 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 Sacramento County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Herald's 5,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Herald you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Herald-wide figureread your own land →
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