Lake Davis, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lake Davis, 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 Lake Davis 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 Lake Davis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Davis — the short answer
Lake Davis, California: USDA zone 6b, about 130 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~130
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6b is Lake Davis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Davis's 130-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Davis
Each reading below is measured for Lake Davis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Davis runs about 130 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
MeasuredLake Davis sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lake Davis is in
Lake Davis sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lake Davis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in Lake Davis
Every plant below cleared Lake Davis's own zone 6b and its 130-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Davis?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Lake Davis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Davis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 023N014E06L001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- Sierra Energy #36Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TOMS SIERRA CO INC DBA SIERRA SUPER STOP 36Brownfields · 2.8 mi
- PORTOLA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- DILLON'S MOBILE REPAIRBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- CITY OF PORTOLA/PLUMAS CTY PHHWCFBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- PHIL ALLEGRIBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- KS MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CITY OF PORTOLA-PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- TROY'S AUTOMOTIVE SERVICEBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- PORTOLA AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Davis'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 Lake Davis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Davis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Davis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Davis, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Davis. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Lake Davis
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 Lake Davis average
Your land is one point inside Lake Davis
Everything above resolves to Lake Davis 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 Lake Davis Average
Lake Davis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Davis
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Davis
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Davis's scale: May 24 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Davis's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Davis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Davis, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Davis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Davis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Davis average
How we know this about Lake Davis
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 Lake Davis’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 Lake Davis
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Davis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Davis 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 Lake Davis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Davis typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 130 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Davis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Davis sees about 130 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 17, about 95 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Davis?
The federal record around Lake Davis is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Lake Davis?
With about 130 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lake Davis 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 158 to 186 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 Lake Davis's scale — its 6b band and its 130-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Davis'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 Lake Davis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Davis's own scale — its own ~130-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,480 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Davis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Davis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Oct 1 and the ~130-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Davis, the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Davis's boundary and the 3,480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~130-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Davis's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Davis's 3,480 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Davis's 3,480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Davis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,480 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Lake Davis-wide figureread your own land →