Independence, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Independence, 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 Independence 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 Independence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Independence — the short answer
Independence, California: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 8a is Independence's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Independence's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Independence
Each reading below is measured for Independence itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIndependence runs about 259 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredIndependence sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Independence is in
Independence sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Independence's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Inyo County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Independence
Every plant below cleared Independence's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Independence?
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 Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Independence
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Independence. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 013S035E08P001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- INDEPENDENCE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CALTRANSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- USDOI NPS MANZANAR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- GRINDING ROCK AGGREGATESBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- DOHS-INYO COBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Independence StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- INDEPENDENCE YARDBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- LADWP - Independence YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- G1 TOWING AND AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- 013S034E02K002MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- INDEPENDENCE SHELL AND MINI MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 013S035E17Q001MNitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Independence'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 Independence.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Independence
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Independence
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Independence, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Independence — Mining (42 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Independence
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 Independence average
Your land is one point inside Independence
Everything above resolves to Independence as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Independence Average
Independence Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Independence
- ●One soil character for all of Independence
- ●Frost dates read at Independence's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Independence's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Independence
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Independence, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Independence averages can't show:
We read public map data around Independence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Independence average
How we know this about Independence
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 Independence’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 Independence
When does frost risk typically end in Independence?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Independence typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Independence?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Independence typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Independence?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Independence sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 6, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Independence?
The federal record around Independence is a meaningful one — 79 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Independence?
From about Oct 21 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 Nov 20 (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 Nov 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Independence's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Independence'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 Independence’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Independence's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,111 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Independence's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Independence's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 20 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Independence, the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Independence's boundary and the 3,111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Independence sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Independence's 3,111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Inyo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Inyo 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 Inyo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Independence's 3,111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Independence you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Independence-wide figureread your own land →