Ladera, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ladera, 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 Ladera 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 Ladera — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ladera — the short answer
Ladera, California: USDA zone 9b, about 347 days between hard freezes, across 275 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~347
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 275 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 9b is Ladera's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ladera's 347-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ladera
Each reading below is measured for Ladera itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLadera runs about 347 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
MeasuredLadera 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 Ladera is in
Ladera sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Ladera's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Mateo County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ladera
Every plant below cleared Ladera's own zone 9b and its 347-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ladera?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Ladera
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Ladera, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ladera
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ladera. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAURENCE BEENBrownfields · 750 ft
- KRNA, CATHERINEBrownfields · 900 ft
- CIRCLE A CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ELIZABETH RADFORDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- BITA MAVADDATBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SHREVE RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SHELL OIL COBrownfields · 1900 ft
- STANFORD PRIMARY CARE IN PORTOLA VALLEYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ALPINE LADERA FUEL INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Alpine Ladera Fuel IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ROCHELLE GIBBONSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- BOETHING TREELAND FARMS INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ladera'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 Ladera.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ladera
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ladera
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ladera, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,908 sites within ~10 miles of Ladera. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Ladera
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 Ladera average
Your land is one point inside Ladera
Everything above resolves to Ladera as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 275 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 Ladera Average
Ladera Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Ladera
- ●One soil character for all of Ladera
- ●Frost dates read at Ladera's scale: Jan 9 to Dec 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ladera's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ladera
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ladera, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ladera averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ladera — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ladera average
How we know this about Ladera
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 Ladera’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 Ladera
When does frost risk typically end in Ladera?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ladera typically lands around Jan 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 Jan 30.
When is the first frost in Ladera?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ladera typically arrives around Dec 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 8, so the watching starts about Nov 22 — about 347 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ladera?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ladera sees about 347 frost-free days — roughly Jan 9 through Dec 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 30 to Dec 8, about 312 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ladera?
The federal record around Ladera runs heavier than most — 4,352 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,908), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ladera?
From about Nov 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ladera's scale — its 9b band and its 347-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ladera'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 Ladera’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ladera's own scale — its own ~347-day season between 28°F freezes, the 275 acres it covers and 4,352 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ladera's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ladera's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 9 and Dec 22 and the ~347-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,352 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ladera, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ladera's boundary and the 275 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~347-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ladera sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Laderalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ladera's 275 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 Ladera's 275 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ladera you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 275 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ladera-wide figureread your own land →