Lakehead, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lakehead, 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 Lakehead 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 Lakehead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lakehead — the short answer
Lakehead, California: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Shasta County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lakehead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakehead's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakehead
Each reading below is measured for Lakehead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLakehead runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Shasta County, the closest normal to Lakehead) — 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
MeasuredLakehead sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Lakehead is in
Lakehead sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Lakehead's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shasta County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lakehead
Every plant below cleared Lakehead's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakehead?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Lakehead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakehead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INC.Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- CALTRANS 02-4H9204 DELTA FIREBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- LAKEHEAD OIL CORP DBA ANTLERS FOOD&FUELBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Antlers Food & FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LAKEHEAD LIONS CLUBBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- KAREN PUDWILL DBA SHASTA LAKE AUTO & TOWBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Lakehead TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 035N005W02D001MNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 035N005W13A001MNitrate · 1.4 mi
- CANYON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Gregory and WhalenMining · 2.7 mi
- Gossan GroupMining · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakehead'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 Lakehead.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakehead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakehead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakehead, Mining runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Lakehead. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Lakehead
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 Lakehead average
Your land is one point inside Lakehead
Everything above resolves to Lakehead as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Shasta County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Lakehead Average
Lakehead Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lakehead
- ●One soil character for all of Lakehead
- ●Frost dates read at Lakehead's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakehead's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakehead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakehead, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakehead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakehead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakehead average
How we know this about Lakehead
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 Shasta County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Lakehead
When does frost risk typically end in Lakehead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakehead typically lands around Feb 12, 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 Mar 5.
When is the first frost in Lakehead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakehead typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakehead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakehead sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 25, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakehead?
The federal record around Lakehead shows 55 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (29), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lakehead?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lakehead's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakehead'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 Lakehead’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lakehead's own scale — the 3,005 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakehead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakehead, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakehead's boundary and the 3,005 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lakehead sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lakehead has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Shasta County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lakehead's 3,005 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakehead's 3,005 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakehead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,005 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Lakehead-wide figureread your own land →