Keene, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Keene, 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 Keene 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 Keene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keene — the short answer
Keene, California: USDA zone 9a, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 9a is Keene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keene's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keene
Each reading below is measured for Keene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeene runs about 281 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredKeene sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Keene is in
Keene sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Keene's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Keene
Every plant below cleared Keene's own zone 9a and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keene?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Keene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BNSF CLIFF STATION, CA TEHACHAPI DERAILBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 031S031E11D001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- Powell MineMining · 2.0 mi
- King Solomon ProspectMining · 2.0 mi
- KEENE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- IVA SITE (INTAGLIO VIRI COLOR ALLANCE, LTD.)Superfund · 2.4 mi
- Helen-Joyce ProspectMining · 2.5 mi
- KEENE HELIBASE/KERN COUNTY FIRE DEPTBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- FIRE STATION 11Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Loop RanchMining · 4.3 mi
- BEAR VALLEY GASBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- IAT ORGANIZATION INC DBA BVS GARAGEBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keene'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 Keene.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Keene
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keene, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Keene — Mining (20 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Keene
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 Keene average
Your land is one point inside Keene
Everything above resolves to Keene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Keene Average
Keene Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Keene
- ●One soil character for all of Keene
- ●Frost dates read at Keene's scale: Feb 24 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keene's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keene, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keene average
How we know this about Keene
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 Keene’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 Keene
When does frost risk typically end in Keene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keene typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Keene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keene typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keene sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 18, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keene?
The federal record around Keene is a meaningful one — 82 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (28), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Keene?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keene's scale — its 9a band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keene'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 Keene’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keene's own scale — its own ~281-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,044 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 24 and Dec 2 and the ~281-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keene, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keene's boundary and the 6,044 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Keene 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 Keene's 6,044 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern 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 Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keene's 6,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,044 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Keene-wide figureread your own land →