Kelly Ridge, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kelly Ridge, 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 Kelly Ridge 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 Kelly Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kelly Ridge — the short answer
Kelly Ridge, California: USDA zone 9b, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Butte County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Kelly Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kelly Ridge's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kelly Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Kelly Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKelly Ridge runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Butte County, the closest normal to Kelly Ridge) — 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
MeasuredKelly Ridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Kelly Ridge is in
Kelly Ridge sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Kelly Ridge's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butte County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kelly Ridge
Every plant below cleared Kelly Ridge's own zone 9b and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kelly Ridge?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Kelly Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kelly Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE OROVILLE GOLF AND EVENT CENTERBrownfields · 1700 ft
- OROVILLE LAKE MARINAS LLC DBA BIDWELL CANYON MARINABrownfields · 1800 ft
- STIMPEL-WIEBELHAUS ASSOCIATES INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KIEWIT INFRASTRUCTURE WEST COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #15507Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- LAKESIDE MARKET & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAKESIDE MARKET & GASBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- LAKESIDE AUTO AND DIESEL REPAIRBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS LAKE OROVILLE SRABrownfields · 2.4 mi
- OFD HYATT POWER PLANT COMPLEXBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- OROVILLE FIELD DIVISION - O&M CENTERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kelly Ridge'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 Kelly Ridge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kelly Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kelly Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kelly Ridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kelly Ridge — PFAS (4 sites) and Brownfields (223 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Kelly Ridge
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 Kelly Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Kelly Ridge
Everything above resolves to Kelly Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Butte County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Kelly Ridge Average
Kelly Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Kelly Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Kelly Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Kelly Ridge's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kelly Ridge's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kelly Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kelly Ridge, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kelly Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kelly Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kelly Ridge average
How we know this about Kelly Ridge
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 Butte County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Kelly Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Kelly Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kelly Ridge typically lands around Jan 19, 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 Feb 9.
When is the first frost in Kelly Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kelly Ridge typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kelly Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kelly Ridge sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 3, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kelly Ridge?
The federal record around Kelly Ridge runs heavier than most — 328 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (223), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Kelly Ridge?
From about Nov 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 Dec 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kelly Ridge's scale — its 9b band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kelly Ridge'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 Kelly Ridge’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kelly Ridge's own scale — the 1,249 acres it covers and 328 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kelly Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 328 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kelly Ridge, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kelly Ridge's boundary and the 1,249 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kelly Ridge sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kelly Ridge has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Butte County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kelly Ridge's 1,249 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butte 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 Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kelly Ridge's 1,249 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kelly Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,249 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Kelly Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
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