Loma Mar, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Loma Mar, 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 Loma Mar 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 Loma Mar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Loma Mar — the short answer
Loma Mar, California: USDA zone 9b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Loma Mar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loma Mar's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loma Mar
Each reading below is measured for Loma Mar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLoma Mar sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Loma Mar is in
Loma Mar sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Loma Mar's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Mateo County.
What Grows in Loma Mar
Every plant below cleared Loma Mar's own zone 9b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Loma Mar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loma Mar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAN MATEO COUNTY MEMORIAL PARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- YMCA CAMP LOMA MARBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- POMPONIO RANCH LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- SAN FRANCISCO YMCA CAMP JONES GULCHBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- TOMKAT RANCH LLCBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- BIANCHI FLOWERS, INC.Brownfields · 3.6 mi
- SKYLONDA EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- LOG CABIN RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ALICES OF SKYLONDA INC DBA SKYLONDA EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 007S004W24L001MNitrate · 3.7 mi
- SAN MATEO COUNTY DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- COUNTY OF SAN MATEO-LA HONDA CORP YARDBrownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loma Mar'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 Loma Mar.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loma Mar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loma Mar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loma Mar, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Loma Mar. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Loma Mar
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 Loma Mar average
Your land is one point inside Loma Mar
Everything above resolves to Loma Mar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Loma Mar Average
Loma Mar Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Loma Mar
- ●One soil character for all of Loma Mar
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loma Mar's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loma Mar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loma Mar, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loma Mar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loma Mar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loma Mar average
How we know this about Loma Mar
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Loma Mar
Is it too late to plant in Loma Mar?
No — Loma Mar has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Loma Mar?
It doesn't — Loma Mar records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Loma Mar?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Loma Mar contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loma Mar?
The federal record around Loma Mar shows 97 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (76), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Loma Mar's scale — its 9b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Loma Mar'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 Loma Mar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Loma Mar's own scale — the 1,109 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loma Mar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Loma Mar — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loma Mar, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loma Mar's boundary and the 1,109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Loma Mar's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loma Mar's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loma Mar's 1,109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 San Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loma Mar's 1,109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loma Mar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Loma Mar-wide figureread your own land →