Lebec, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lebec, 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 Lebec 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 Lebec — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lebec — the short answer
Lebec, California: USDA zone 8b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 8b is Lebec's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lebec's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lebec
Each reading below is measured for Lebec itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLebec runs about 230 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLebec sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Lebec is in
Lebec sits in the Southern California Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Lebec's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lebec
Every plant below cleared Lebec's own zone 8b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lebec?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Lebec
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lebec. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOUR COR PIPELINE CO TEJONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PACIFIC PIPELINE SYSTEM LLC - TEJON STATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- LEBEC TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- LEBEC STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- LEBEC AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BOBS AUTO RPRBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SANTANAS PUMPING AND PLUMBING INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 009N019W33P001SNitrate · 1.7 mi
- CALIF HWY PATROL-FORT TEJONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MOUNTAIN AIRE VETERINARY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL #430 FORT TEJONBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CALIFORNIA MOBILE MECHANICBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lebec'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 Lebec.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Lebec
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lebec
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lebec
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lebec, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Lebec. 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 Lebec
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 Lebec average
Your land is one point inside Lebec
Everything above resolves to Lebec as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Lebec Average
Lebec Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lebec
- ●One soil character for all of Lebec
- ●Frost dates read at Lebec's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lebec's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lebec
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lebec, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lebec averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lebec — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lebec average
How we know this about Lebec
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 Lebec’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 Lebec
When does frost risk typically end in Lebec?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lebec typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Lebec?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lebec typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lebec?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lebec sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Nov 10, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lebec?
The federal record around Lebec is a meaningful one — 94 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (64), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Lebec?
From about Oct 25 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 Nov 24 (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 Nov 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lebec's scale — its 8b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lebec'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 Lebec’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lebec's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,807 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lebec's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lebec's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 24 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lebec, the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lebec's boundary and the 9,807 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lebec sits in the Southern California Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lebec's 9,807 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern 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 Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lebec's 9,807 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lebec you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,807 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Lebec-wide figureread your own land →