Lompoc, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — 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 — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lompoc, 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 Lompoc 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 Lompoc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lompoc — the short answer
Lompoc, California: USDA zone 10a, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 10a is Lompoc's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lompoc's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lompoc
Each reading below is measured for Lompoc itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLompoc runs about 320 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredLompoc sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Lompoc is in
Lompoc sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Lompoc's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Lompoc
Every plant below cleared Lompoc's own zone 10a and its 320-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lompoc?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Lompoc
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lompoc. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 007N034W28F003SNitrate · 500 ft
- DMHP, LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- DEN-MAT HOLDINGS LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- CITY OF LOMPOC - SOLID WASTE DIV CSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CITY OF LOMPOC HHWCFBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ACECO EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 1400 ft
- 007N034W28F002SNitrate · 1400 ft
- 007N034W28G002SNitrate · 1500 ft
- 007N034W28G001SNitrate · 1500 ft
- V & J ROCK TRANSPORT, INC.Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CHRISTINE VOGEL/THE WILLOWS MHPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- AUSTIN JONES CORPBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lompoc'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 Lompoc.
Total Sites
846
within ~10 miles of Lompoc
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lompoc
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lompoc
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lompoc, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 604 sites within ~10 miles of Lompoc. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lompoc
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 Lompoc average
Your land is one point inside Lompoc
Everything above resolves to Lompoc as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Lompoc Average
Lompoc Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Lompoc
- ●One soil character for all of Lompoc
- ●Frost dates read at Lompoc's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lompoc's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lompoc
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lompoc, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lompoc averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lompoc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lompoc average
How we know this about Lompoc
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lompoc’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Lompoc
When does frost risk typically end in Lompoc?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lompoc typically lands around Jan 26, 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 Feb 16.
When is the first frost in Lompoc?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lompoc typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 320 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lompoc?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lompoc sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 28, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lompoc?
The federal record around Lompoc is a meaningful one — 846 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (604), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lompoc?
From about Nov 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 Dec 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 Dec 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lompoc's scale — its 10a band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lompoc'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 Lompoc’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lompoc's own scale — its own ~320-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,439 acres it covers and 846 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lompoc's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lompoc's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 26 and Dec 12 and the ~320-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 846 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lompoc, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lompoc's boundary and the 7,439 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lompoc's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lompoc's 7,439 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lompoc's 7,439 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lompoc you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,439 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lompoc-wide figureread your own land →