Litchfield, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Litchfield, 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 Litchfield 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 Litchfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Litchfield — the short answer
Litchfield, California: USDA zone 6b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- 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 Litchfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Litchfield's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Litchfield
Each reading below is measured for Litchfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLitchfield runs about 163 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
MeasuredLitchfield 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 Litchfield is in
Litchfield sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Litchfield's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lassen County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Litchfield
Every plant below cleared Litchfield's own zone 6b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Litchfield?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Litchfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Litchfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 029N014E10Q001MNitrate · 0.5 mi
- HALLGREEN ENTERPRISES LLCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- LASSEN MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- LASSEN COUNTY ROAD DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- 029N014E17A001MNitrate · 2.7 mi
- LASSEN MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT-STANDISHBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- WAYSIDE INN MARKETBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Wayside InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- HAT CREEK CONSTRUCTION & MATERIALS INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- FIVE DOT LAND & CATTLE COBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- 030N014E31Q001MNitrate · 3.8 mi
- SIERRA CASCADE NURSERYBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Litchfield'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 Litchfield.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Litchfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Litchfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Litchfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Litchfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Litchfield — Nitrate (16 sites) and Brownfields (23 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Litchfield
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 Litchfield average
Your land is one point inside Litchfield
Everything above resolves to Litchfield 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 Litchfield Average
Litchfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Litchfield
- ●One soil character for all of Litchfield
- ●Frost dates read at Litchfield's scale: May 2 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Litchfield's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Litchfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Litchfield, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Litchfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Litchfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Litchfield average
How we know this about Litchfield
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 Litchfield’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 Litchfield
When does frost risk typically end in Litchfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Litchfield typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Litchfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Litchfield typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Litchfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Litchfield sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 28, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Litchfield?
The federal record around Litchfield is a meaningful one — 44 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (23), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Litchfield?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Litchfield's scale — its 6b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Litchfield'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 Litchfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Litchfield's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,548 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Litchfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Litchfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 12 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Litchfield, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Litchfield's boundary and the 2,548 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Litchfield sits in the Northern Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Litchfield's 2,548 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lassen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lassen 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 Lassen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Litchfield's 2,548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Litchfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,548 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Litchfield-wide figureread your own land →
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