June Lake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with pumpkin, blackberry, lavender, and zucchini — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in June Lake, 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 June Lake 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 June Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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June Lake — the short answer
June Lake, California: USDA zone 5b, about 96 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~96
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 5b is June Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against June Lake's 96-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in June Lake
Each reading below is measured for June Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJune Lake runs about 96 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
MeasuredJune Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 June Lake is in
June Lake sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at June Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mono County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in June Lake
Every plant below cleared June Lake's own zone 5b and its 96-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in June Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 15 — 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 June Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of June Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JUNE MOUNTAIN SKI RESORTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- JUNE MT SKI AREA DBA MMSA LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Old GloryMining · 1.4 mi
- June Mountain Ski AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Old Glory, Fern CreekMining · 1.4 mi
- Lemont GroupMining · 1.5 mi
- RUSH CREEK POWERHOUSEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- JUNE LAKE PUBLIC UTILITYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Rush Creek MinesMining · 2.9 mi
- Waage GroupMining · 3.2 mi
- Lucky Boy ProspectMining · 3.3 mi
- Shadow ClaimMining · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from June Lake'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 June Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of June Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of June Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around June Lake, Mining runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of June Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in June Lake
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 June Lake average
Your land is one point inside June Lake
Everything above resolves to June Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 June Lake Average
June Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across June Lake
- ●One soil character for all of June Lake
- ●Frost dates read at June Lake's scale: Jun 11 to Sep 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not June Lake's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in June Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in June Lake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that June Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around June Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the June Lake average
How we know this about June Lake
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 June Lake’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 June Lake
When does frost risk typically end in June Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in June Lake typically lands around Jun 11, 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 Jul 2.
When is the first frost in June Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in June Lake typically arrives around Sep 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 1, so the watching starts about Aug 16 — about 96 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in June Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, June Lake sees about 96 frost-free days — roughly Jun 11 through Sep 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 2 to Sep 1, about 61 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in June Lake?
The federal record around June Lake runs heavier than most — 84 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in June Lake?
With about 96 frost-free days between hard freezes, June Lake 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 124 to 152 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at June Lake's scale — its 5b band and its 96-day season. Your yard writes its own version of June Lake'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 June Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at June Lake's own scale — its own ~96-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,596 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- June Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- June Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 11 and Sep 15 and the ~96-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near June Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- June Lake's boundary and the 6,596 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~96-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- June Lake sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so June Lake's 6,596 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among June Lake's 6,596 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of June Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,596 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 June Lake-wide figureread your own land →