Los Olivos, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Los Olivos, 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 Los Olivos 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 Los Olivos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Los Olivos — the short answer
Los Olivos, California: USDA zone 9b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- 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 9b is Los Olivos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Los Olivos's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Los Olivos
Each reading below is measured for Los Olivos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLos Olivos runs about 311 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
MeasuredLos Olivos 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 Los Olivos is in
Los Olivos sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Los Olivos's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Los Olivos
Every plant below cleared Los Olivos's own zone 9b and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Los Olivos?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Los Olivos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Los Olivos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOS OLIVOS MOTORSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MINETTI & SON TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2100 ft
- 007N031W23N005SNitrate · 0.5 mi
- TIERRA ALTA VINEYARDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 007N031W22P001SNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 007N031W35K004SNitrate · 1.4 mi
- FARM AND RANCH EQUIPMENT SERVICE SHOPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MBK & JONATA VINEYARDBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 007N031W36L002SNitrate · 1.7 mi
- Z RANCH LLCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- 007N030W19L001SNitrate · 2.2 mi
- COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARABrownfields · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Los Olivos'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 Los Olivos.
Total Sites
313
within ~10 miles of Los Olivos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Los Olivos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Los Olivos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Los Olivos, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Los Olivos — Nitrate (136 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Los Olivos
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 Los Olivos average
Your land is one point inside Los Olivos
Everything above resolves to Los Olivos 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 Los Olivos Average
Los Olivos Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Los Olivos
- ●One soil character for all of Los Olivos
- ●Frost dates read at Los Olivos's scale: Feb 2 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Los Olivos's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Los Olivos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Los Olivos, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Los Olivos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Los Olivos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Los Olivos average
How we know this about Los Olivos
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 Los Olivos’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 Los Olivos
When does frost risk typically end in Los Olivos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Los Olivos typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 23.
When is the first frost in Los Olivos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Los Olivos typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Los Olivos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Los Olivos sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Feb 2 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 23 to Nov 26, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Los Olivos?
The federal record around Los Olivos is a meaningful one — 313 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (142), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Los Olivos?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Los Olivos's scale — its 9b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Los Olivos'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 Los Olivos’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Los Olivos's own scale — its own ~311-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,675 acres it covers and 313 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Los Olivos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Los Olivos's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 2 and Dec 10 and the ~311-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 313 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Los Olivos, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Los Olivos's boundary and the 1,675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Los Olivos'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 Los Olivos's 1,675 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 Los Olivos's 1,675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Los Olivos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Los Olivos-wide figureread your own land →