Kings Beach, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kings Beach, 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 Kings Beach 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 Kings Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kings Beach — the short answer
Kings Beach, California: USDA zone 7a, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- 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
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Kings Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kings Beach's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kings Beach
Each reading below is measured for Kings Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKings Beach runs about 142 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
MeasuredKings Beach 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 Kings Beach is in
Kings Beach sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kings Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Placer County.
What Grows in Kings Beach
Every plant below cleared Kings Beach's own zone 7a and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kings Beach?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (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. 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 Kings Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kings Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JR KRAUSS LTDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- TUHEY'S AUTO & TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BURDICK EXCAVATION/VEEDER VIEW LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- KINGS BEACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TAHOE TRUCKEE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KINGS BEACH CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SAUERHAUS INC DBA KINGS BEACH CHEVRONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS KINGS BEACH SRABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MORESI INC DBA NORTH SHORE HARDWAREBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WILLIAM M LANE & LILY P LANE TRUSTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- OLD BROCKWAY GOLF COURSEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NORTH TAHOE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kings Beach'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 Kings Beach.
Total Sites
251
within ~10 miles of Kings Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kings Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kings Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kings Beach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kings Beach — PFAS (3 sites) and Brownfields (122 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 Kings Beach
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 Kings Beach average
Your land is one point inside Kings Beach
Everything above resolves to Kings Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Kings Beach Average
Kings Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kings Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Kings Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Kings Beach's scale: May 24 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kings Beach's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kings Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kings Beach, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kings Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kings Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kings Beach average
How we know this about Kings Beach
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 Kings Beach’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 Kings Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Kings Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kings Beach typically lands around May 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Kings Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kings Beach 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 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kings Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kings Beach sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 29, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kings Beach?
The federal record around Kings Beach is a meaningful one — 251 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (122), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Kings Beach?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Kings Beach 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Kings Beach's scale — its 7a band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kings Beach'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 Kings Beach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kings Beach's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,830 acres it covers and 251 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kings Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kings Beach's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Oct 13 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 251 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kings Beach, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kings Beach's boundary and the 1,830 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kings Beach's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kings Beach's 1,830 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Placer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Placer 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 Placer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kings Beach's 1,830 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kings Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,830 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 Kings Beach-wide figureread your own land →