Hood, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hood, 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 Hood 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 Hood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hood — the short answer
Hood, California: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 202 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
- 202 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 Hood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hood's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hood
Each reading below is measured for Hood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHood runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Sacramento County, the closest normal to Hood) — 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
MeasuredHood 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 Hood is in
Hood sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Hood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sacramento County.
What Grows in Hood
Every plant below cleared Hood'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 Hood?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Hood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PYLMAN VINEYARDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CONSTELLATION BRANDS US OPERATIONS INC DBA RIVER ROAD VINEYARDBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BOGLE VINYARDS INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- OLD RIVER VINEYARDSBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- BOGLE WINERYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- VINO FARMS LLC - L-17 CLARKSBURGBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- GREENE & HEMLY-RANDALL RANCHBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- VINO FARMSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- CLARKSBURG DBA PACIFIC AGRILANDS INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- J H JONSON & SONS INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- JOE GREEN RANCH LLCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- SUTTER HOME VINEYARDS, INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hood'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 Hood.
Total Sites
1,095
within ~10 miles of Hood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hood, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 940 sites within ~10 miles of Hood. 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 Hood
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 Hood average
Your land is one point inside Hood
Everything above resolves to Hood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 202 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 Hood Average
Hood Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Hood
- ●One soil character for all of Hood
- ●Frost dates read at Hood's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hood's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hood, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hood average
How we know this about Hood
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 Hood
When does frost risk typically end in Hood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hood 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 Hood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hood 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 Hood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hood 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 Hood?
The federal record around Hood is a meaningful one — 1,095 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (940), 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 Hood?
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 Hood's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hood'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 Hood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hood's own scale — the 202 acres it covers and 1,095 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,095 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hood, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hood's boundary and the 202 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 Hood's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hood 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 Hood's 202 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 Hood's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 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 Hood-wide figureread your own land →