Madera, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Madera, 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 Madera 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 Madera — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madera — the short answer
Madera, California: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 13K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Madera County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Madera's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madera's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madera
Each reading below is measured for Madera itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMadera runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Madera County, the closest normal to Madera) — 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
MeasuredMadera sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Madera is in
Madera sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Madera's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madera County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Madera
Every plant below cleared Madera's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madera?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Madera
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madera. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILLUBA TRANSPORTBrownfields · 400 ft
- VILLEGAS TRUCKINGBrownfields · 600 ft
- MUSD/JOHN ADAMS SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ATV INC DBA AMERICAN TIRE DEPOTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PG&E GREGG SUBSTATION GARAGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MADERA TIRE & AUTOBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PETCO STORE #1332Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BIG 5 SPORTING GOODS #403Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR TREE #01220Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOWE'S OF MADERA #2712Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MARSHALLS 1191Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- SALONCENTRIC 5938Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madera'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 Madera.
Total Sites
594
within ~10 miles of Madera
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madera
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madera
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madera, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 375 sites within ~10 miles of Madera. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Madera
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 Madera average
Your land is one point inside Madera
Everything above resolves to Madera as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 13K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madera County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Madera Average
Madera Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Madera
- ●One soil character for all of Madera
- ●Frost dates read at Madera's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madera's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madera
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madera, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madera averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madera — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madera average
How we know this about Madera
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 Madera County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Madera
When does frost risk typically end in Madera?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madera typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Madera?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madera typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madera?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madera sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madera?
The federal record around Madera is a meaningful one — 594 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (375), the nearest Brownfields 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 Madera?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madera's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madera'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 Madera’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Madera's own scale — the 12,612 acres it covers and 594 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madera's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 594 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madera, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madera's boundary and the 12,612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Madera sits in the Central California Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Madera has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madera County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Madera's 12,612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madera 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 Madera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madera's 12,612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madera you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,612 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Madera-wide figureread your own land →
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