Johnson Park, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Johnson Park, 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 Johnson Park 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 Johnson Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Johnson Park — the short answer
Johnson Park, California: USDA zone 7a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 578 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 578 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 7a is Johnson Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Johnson Park's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Johnson Park
Each reading below is measured for Johnson Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJohnson Park runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredJohnson Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Johnson Park is in
Johnson Park sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Johnson Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shasta County.
What Grows in Johnson Park
Every plant below cleared Johnson Park's own zone 7a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Johnson Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Johnson Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Johnson Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURNEY TRANSPORTATION INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- INTER MOUNTAIN BODYWORKSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- H&R LOGGING INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SNOW MOUNTAIN HYDROBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 035N003E03L001MNitrate · 1600 ft
- NORCAL FOREST RESOURCES INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- BURNEY FUEL INC DBA ROCKY LEDGE FOOD & GASBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Rocky Ledge Food & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BURNEY MOUNTAIN POWERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- WASTE WATER TREATMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CALTRANS DISTRICT 02/EA-02-4E0204Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CARLTON CHRISTMAS TREES LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Johnson Park'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 Johnson Park.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Johnson Park
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Johnson Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Johnson Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Johnson Park, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Johnson Park. 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 Johnson Park
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 Johnson Park average
Your land is one point inside Johnson Park
Everything above resolves to Johnson Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 578 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 Johnson Park Average
Johnson Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Johnson Park
- ●One soil character for all of Johnson Park
- ●Frost dates read at Johnson Park's scale: May 7 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Johnson Park's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Johnson Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Johnson Park, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Johnson Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Johnson Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Johnson Park average
How we know this about Johnson Park
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 Johnson Park’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 Johnson Park
When does frost risk typically end in Johnson Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson Park typically lands around May 7, 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 May 28.
When is the first frost in Johnson Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson Park typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Johnson Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Johnson Park sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 18, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Johnson Park?
The federal record around Johnson Park shows 70 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (56), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Johnson Park?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Johnson Park rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Johnson Park's scale — its 7a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Johnson Park'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 Johnson Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Johnson Park's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 578 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Johnson Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Johnson Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 2 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Johnson Park, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Johnson Park's boundary and the 578 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Johnson Park's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Johnson Park's 578 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Johnson Park's 578 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Johnson Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 578 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Johnson Park-wide figureread your own land →
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