Madera Ranchos, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Madera Ranchos, 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 Ranchos 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 Ranchos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madera Ranchos — the short answer
Madera Ranchos, California: USDA zone 9b, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- 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
- Town area
- 2K 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 9b is Madera Ranchos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madera Ranchos'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 Ranchos
Each reading below is measured for Madera Ranchos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMadera Ranchos runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Madera County, the closest normal to Madera Ranchos) — 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 Ranchos 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 Madera Ranchos is in
Madera Ranchos sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Madera Ranchos'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 Ranchos
Plants matched to Madera Ranchos's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Madera Ranchos?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Ranchos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madera Ranchos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MG5 CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RANCHOS VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- R & J Guthrie IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- S & K MINI MART #3Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #15374Brownfields · 2600 ft
- GOLDEN VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOPEZ, SALVADOBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GOLDEN VALLEY USDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- JJ MOBILE REPAIRSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SIERRA VIEW RANCHBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madera Ranchos'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 Ranchos.
Total Sites
1,078
within ~10 miles of Madera Ranchos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madera Ranchos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madera Ranchos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madera Ranchos, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 868 sites within ~10 miles of Madera Ranchos. 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 Ranchos
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 Ranchos average
Your land is one point inside Madera Ranchos
Everything above resolves to Madera Ranchos as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madera County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Madera Ranchos Average
Madera Ranchos Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Madera Ranchos
- ●One soil character for all of Madera Ranchos
- ●Frost dates read at Madera Ranchos's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madera Ranchos's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madera Ranchos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madera Ranchos, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madera Ranchos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madera Ranchos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madera Ranchos average
How we know this about Madera Ranchos
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 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 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 Madera Ranchos
When does frost risk typically end in Madera Ranchos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madera Ranchos 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 Ranchos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madera Ranchos 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 Ranchos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madera Ranchos 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 Ranchos?
The federal record around Madera Ranchos is a meaningful one — 1,078 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (868), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Madera Ranchos?
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 Ranchos's scale — its 9b band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madera Ranchos'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 Ranchos’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Madera Ranchos's own scale — the 1,667 acres it covers and 1,078 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madera Ranchos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,078 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madera Ranchos, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madera Ranchos's boundary and the 1,667 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Madera Ranchos 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 Ranchos 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 Ranchos's 1,667 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- 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 Ranchos's 1,667 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madera Ranchos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,667 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Madera Ranchos-wide figureread your own land →