Long Barn, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Long Barn, 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 Long Barn 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 Long Barn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Long Barn — the short answer
Long Barn, California: USDA zone 8b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Long Barn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Barn's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Barn
Each reading below is measured for Long Barn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Barn runs about 220 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
MeasuredLong Barn 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 Long Barn is in
Long Barn sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Long Barn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tuolumne County.
What Grows in Long Barn
Every plant below cleared Long Barn's own zone 8b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Barn?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Long Barn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Barn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GemMining · 1.6 mi
- CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Sierra Village ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- AUTO DISCOUNT REPAIRBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Sonnys Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 003N016E26E001MNitrate · 3.2 mi
- USDA USFS R05 K RD (STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST)Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- DONNA CLAIRE MANFRE TRUSTBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Zak's Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- CAL TRANSBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- 003N017E02G001MNitrate · 5.0 mi
- Lucky Strike ClaimMining · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Barn'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 Long Barn.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Long Barn
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Long Barn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Barn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Barn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Long Barn — Mining (22 sites) and Brownfields (45 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Long Barn
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 Long Barn average
Your land is one point inside Long Barn
Everything above resolves to Long Barn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Long Barn Average
Long Barn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Long Barn
- ●One soil character for all of Long Barn
- ●Frost dates read at Long Barn's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Barn's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Barn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Barn, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Barn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Barn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Barn average
How we know this about Long Barn
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 Long Barn’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 Long Barn
When does frost risk typically end in Long Barn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Barn typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Long Barn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Barn typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Barn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Barn sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Nov 7, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Barn?
The federal record around Long Barn runs heavier than most — 82 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (45), the nearest Mining record about 1.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Long Barn?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Long Barn's scale — its 8b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Barn'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 Long Barn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Long Barn's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,848 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Barn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Barn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 21 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Barn, the closest Mining record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Barn's boundary and the 1,848 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Long Barn's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Barn's 1,848 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Long Barn's 1,848 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Barn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,848 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.6 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 Long Barn-wide figureread your own land →