Inverness, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Inverness, 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 Inverness 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 Inverness — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Inverness — the short answer
Inverness, California: USDA zone 10a, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 9
- Marin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Marin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- Marin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Marin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Inverness's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Inverness's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Inverness
Each reading below is measured for Inverness itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsInverness runs about 336 days between hard freezes (read from Marin County, the closest normal to Inverness) — 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
MeasuredInverness sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Inverness is in
Inverness sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Inverness's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Marin County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Inverness
Every plant below cleared Inverness's own zone 10a and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Inverness?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Inverness
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Inverness. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHOREBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- COASTAL HEALTH ALLIANCEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- MARIN COUNTY HAZARDOUS AND SOLID WASTE JPABrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CITY OF SAN RAFAEL FIRE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- USCG CAMSPAC SAN FRANCISCOSuperfund · 2.7 mi
- POINT REYES FIRE STATIONBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- REDWOOD OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Point Reyes StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- POINT REYES COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER PHARMACYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- CHEDA'S GARAGEBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- POINT REYES MAINTENANCE STNBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Inverness'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 Inverness.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of Inverness
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Inverness
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Inverness
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Inverness, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Inverness — Superfund (3 sites) and Mining (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Inverness
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 Inverness average
Your land is one point inside Inverness
Everything above resolves to Inverness as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marin 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 Inverness Average
Inverness Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Inverness
- ●One soil character for all of Inverness
- ●Frost dates read at Inverness's scale: Jan 9 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Inverness's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Inverness
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Inverness, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Inverness averages can't show:
We read public map data around Inverness — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Inverness average
How we know this about Inverness
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 Marin 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 Inverness
When does frost risk typically end in Inverness?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Inverness typically lands around Jan 9, 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 Jan 30.
When is the first frost in Inverness?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Inverness typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Inverness?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Inverness sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 9 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 30 to Nov 27, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Inverness?
The federal record around Inverness is a meaningful one — 45 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (31), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Inverness?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Inverness's scale — its 10a band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Inverness'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 Inverness’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Inverness's own scale — the 4,096 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Inverness's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Inverness, the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Inverness's boundary and the 4,096 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Inverness sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Inverness has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Inverness's 4,096 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marin 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 Marin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Inverness's 4,096 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Inverness you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,096 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Inverness-wide figureread your own land →