Johnstonville, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Johnstonville, 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 Johnstonville 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 Johnstonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Johnstonville — the short answer
Johnstonville, California: USDA zone 7a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Johnstonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Johnstonville's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Johnstonville's own 30-year record measures about 165 days between 28°F killing freezes — 31 days longer than Lassen County's ~134. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Johnstonville's ~165-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Johnstonville
Each reading below is measured for Johnstonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJohnstonville runs about 165 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredJohnstonville 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 Johnstonville is in
Johnstonville sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Johnstonville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lassen County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Johnstonville
Every plant below cleared Johnstonville's own zone 7a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Johnstonville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Johnstonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Johnstonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STEVES LAST MINUTE AUTOBrownfields · 500 ft
- 029N012E11J001MNitrate · 1500 ft
- CUNNINGHAM AUTO GROUP INC DBABrownfields · 1700 ft
- CA Highway Patrol SusanvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL #140 SUSANVILLEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- UPS-SUSANVILLEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- STEVEN K DATEMA DBA SUSANVILLE AVIATIONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- PHI AIR MEDICALBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SUSANVILLE FORDBrownfields · 2600 ft
- CALTRANS SUSANVILLE MAINTENANCE STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- C&S WASTE SOLUTIONS OF LASSEN COUNTYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Johnstonville'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 Johnstonville.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Johnstonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Johnstonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Johnstonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Johnstonville, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Johnstonville. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Johnstonville
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 Johnstonville average
Your land is one point inside Johnstonville
Everything above resolves to Johnstonville as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Johnstonville Average
Johnstonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Johnstonville
- ●One soil character for all of Johnstonville
- ●Frost dates read at Johnstonville's scale: May 1 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Johnstonville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Johnstonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Johnstonville, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Johnstonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Johnstonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Johnstonville average
How we know this about Johnstonville
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 Johnstonville’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 Johnstonville
When does frost risk typically end in Johnstonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Johnstonville typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Johnstonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Johnstonville typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Johnstonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Johnstonville sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 29, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Johnstonville?
The federal record around Johnstonville is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Johnstonville?
From about Sep 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 Oct 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 Oct 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Johnstonville's scale — its 7a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Johnstonville'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 Johnstonville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Johnstonville's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,497 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Johnstonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Johnstonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 13 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Johnstonville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Johnstonville's boundary and the 5,497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Johnstonville 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 Johnstonville's 5,497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lassen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lassen 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 Lassen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Johnstonville's 5,497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Johnstonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,497 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 Johnstonville-wide figureread your own land →
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