Homeland, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Homeland, 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 Homeland 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 Homeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Homeland — the short answer
Homeland, California: USDA zone 9b, about 303 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Riverside County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Riverside County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~303
- Riverside County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Riverside County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Homeland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Homeland's 303-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Homeland
Each reading below is measured for Homeland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHomeland runs about 303 days between hard freezes (read from Riverside County, the closest normal to Homeland) — 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
MeasuredHomeland 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 Homeland is in
Homeland sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Homeland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Riverside County is mostly Sonoran Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Homeland
Every plant below cleared Homeland's own zone 9b and its 303-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Homeland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Homeland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Homeland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TP'S BEST BUYS, INC.Brownfields · 1000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #17052Brownfields · 1200 ft
- GOLDEN STATE AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- TOSCO 00346Brownfields · 2000 ft
- Uni-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- UNI-MART VALEROBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- VIVENA VALDEZBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- RCIT - HOMELANDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ROMOLAND MERCURY ERSuperfund · 1.2 mi
- 005S002W16F001SNitrate · 1.2 mi
- PETER DIPIETRO BOAT WORKSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PERRIS UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT - HERITAGE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Homeland'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 Homeland.
Total Sites
1,522
within ~10 miles of Homeland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Homeland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Homeland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Homeland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Homeland — Brownfields (952 sites) and Nitrate (440 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Homeland
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 Homeland average
Your land is one point inside Homeland
Everything above resolves to Homeland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Riverside 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 Homeland Average
Homeland Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Homeland
- ●One soil character for all of Homeland
- ●Frost dates read at Homeland's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Homeland's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Homeland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Homeland, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Homeland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Homeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Homeland average
How we know this about Homeland
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 Riverside 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 Homeland
When does frost risk typically end in Homeland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Homeland typically lands around Feb 13, 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 Mar 6.
When is the first frost in Homeland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Homeland typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 303 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Homeland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Homeland sees about 303 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 29, about 268 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Homeland?
The federal record around Homeland is a meaningful one — 1,522 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (952), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Homeland?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Homeland's scale — its 9b band and its 303-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Homeland'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 Homeland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Homeland's own scale — the 2,733 acres it covers and 1,522 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Homeland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,522 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Homeland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Homeland's boundary and the 2,733 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~303-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Homeland sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Homeland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Riverside County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Homeland's 2,733 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Riverside County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Riverside 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 Riverside County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Homeland's 2,733 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Homeland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,733 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 Homeland-wide figureread your own land →
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