Keeler, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Keeler, 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 Keeler 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 Keeler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Keeler — the short answer
Keeler, California: USDA zone 8b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 738 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 738 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 8b is Keeler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keeler's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keeler
Each reading below is measured for Keeler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeeler runs about 252 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
MeasuredKeeler sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Keeler is in
Keeler sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Keeler's own centroid rather than borrowed from Inyo County.
What Grows in Keeler
Every plant below cleared Keeler's own zone 8b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keeler?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Keeler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keeler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWANSEA SITESuperfund · 600 ft
- 016S038E31N001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- KEELER YARDBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 017S038E15F001MNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 017S038E18R001MNitrate · 2.8 mi
- Leary MineMining · 3.0 mi
- KeelerMining · 3.5 mi
- Sure ContestMining · 3.7 mi
- ShaferMining · 3.7 mi
- FW AGGREGATE INCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- Riff RaffMining · 4.0 mi
- Keeler MineMining · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keeler'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 Keeler.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Keeler
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keeler
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keeler, Mining runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Keeler. 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 Keeler
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 Keeler average
Your land is one point inside Keeler
Everything above resolves to Keeler as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 738 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 Keeler Average
Keeler Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Keeler
- ●One soil character for all of Keeler
- ●Frost dates read at Keeler's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keeler's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keeler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keeler, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keeler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keeler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keeler average
How we know this about Keeler
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 Keeler’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 Keeler
When does frost risk typically end in Keeler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keeler typically lands around Mar 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Keeler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keeler typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keeler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keeler sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 2, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keeler?
The federal record around Keeler runs heavier than most — 76 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (64), the nearest Superfund record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Keeler?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keeler's scale — its 8b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keeler'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 Keeler’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keeler's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 738 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keeler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keeler's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 16 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keeler, the closest Superfund record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keeler's boundary and the 738 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keeler's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keeler's 738 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 Keeler's 738 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keeler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 738 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.1 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 Keeler-wide figureread your own land →
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