Lake Shastina, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lake Shastina, 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 Shastina 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 Shastina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Shastina — the short answer
Lake Shastina, California: USDA zone 8a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 8a is Lake Shastina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Shastina's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Shastina
Each reading below is measured for Lake Shastina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Shastina runs about 197 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLake Shastina sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Shastina is in
Lake Shastina sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lake Shastina's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Siskiyou County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lake Shastina
Every plant below cleared Lake Shastina's own zone 8a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Shastina?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Lake Shastina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Shastina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 043N005W36G001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- LAKE SHASTINA GOLF RESORTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 043N005W25F001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- CAL TRANS GRASS LAKE MAINT STNBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- 042N005W20J001MNitrate · 4.7 mi
- SW MAINTENANCE CORPBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- 042N005W20E001MNitrate · 5.1 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 5.8 mi
- J.H. BAXTER & CO.Brownfields · 6.0 mi
- J.H. BAXTER & CO.Superfund · 6.0 mi
- J.H. BAXTER & CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Shastina'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 Shastina.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Shastina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Shastina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Shastina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Shastina — Mining (13 sites) and Brownfields (47 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Shastina
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 Shastina average
Your land is one point inside Lake Shastina
Everything above resolves to Lake Shastina 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 Shastina Average
Lake Shastina Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lake Shastina
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Shastina
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Shastina's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Shastina's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Shastina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Shastina, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Shastina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Shastina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Shastina average
How we know this about Lake Shastina
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 Shastina’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 Shastina
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Shastina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Shastina typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Lake Shastina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Shastina typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Shastina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Shastina sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 14, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Shastina?
The federal record around Lake Shastina is a meaningful one — 91 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (47), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 I protect my plants from frost in Lake Shastina?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Shastina's scale — its 8a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Shastina'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 Shastina’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Shastina's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,568 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Shastina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Shastina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 28 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Shastina, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Shastina's boundary and the 2,568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lake Shastina sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Shastina's 2,568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Siskiyou County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Siskiyou 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 Siskiyou County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Shastina's 2,568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Shastina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,568 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Shastina-wide figureread your own land →
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