La Honda, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in La Honda, 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 La Honda 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 La Honda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
La Honda — the short answer
La Honda, California: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is La Honda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Honda's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Honda
Each reading below is measured for La Honda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLa Honda sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 La Honda is in
La Honda sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at La Honda's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Mateo County.
What Grows in La Honda
Every plant below cleared La Honda's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Documented around La Honda
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from La Honda, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near La Honda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Honda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SAN MATEO COUNTY DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- COUNTY OF SAN MATEO-LA HONDA CORP YARDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LOG CABIN RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 007S004W24L001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- LA HONDA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SAN FRANCISCO YMCA CAMP JONES GULCHBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MIDPENINSULA REGIONAL OPEN SPACE DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- LANGLEY HILL QUARRYBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- OLD LA HONDA GENERAL ENGINEERINGBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- MAT PEL BUILDERSBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- CCSF-JUVENILE COURT LOG CABINBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Honda'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 La Honda.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Honda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Honda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Honda, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 656 sites within ~10 miles of La Honda. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in La Honda
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 La Honda average
Your land is one point inside La Honda
Everything above resolves to La Honda as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 La Honda Average
La Honda Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across La Honda
- ●One soil character for all of La Honda
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Honda's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Honda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Honda, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Honda averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Honda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Honda average
How we know this about La Honda
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 La Honda
Is it too late to plant in La Honda?
No — La Honda has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in La Honda?
It doesn't — La Honda records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in La Honda?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for La Honda contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Honda?
The federal record around La Honda is a meaningful one — 771 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (656), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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.
Everything above is measured at La Honda's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of La Honda'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 La Honda’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at La Honda's own scale — the 2,724 acres it covers and 771 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Honda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering La Honda — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 771 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Honda, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Honda's boundary and the 2,724 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear La Honda's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Honda's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of La Hondalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Honda's 2,724 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 San Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Honda's 2,724 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Honda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,724 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 La Honda-wide figureread your own land →