Manhattan Beach, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Manhattan Beach, 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 Manhattan Beach 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 Manhattan Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Manhattan Beach — the short answer
Manhattan Beach, California: USDA zone 10b, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Jan 19 - Mar 19
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Nov 29 - Dec 12
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 10b is Manhattan Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manhattan Beach
Each reading below is measured for Manhattan Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredManhattan Beach sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Manhattan Beach is in
Manhattan Beach sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Manhattan Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from its county.
What Grows in Manhattan Beach
Every plant below cleared Manhattan Beach's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Manhattan Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manhattan Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAUL LUPOBrownfields · 400 ft
- CO OF LA DEPT OF BEACHES & HARBORS MANHATTAN BEACH SERVICE YARDBrownfields · 500 ft
- LA CO DEPT OF BEACHES & HARBORUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- KIP HAMMONDBrownfields · 650 ft
- TRI WEST DEVELOPMENTBrownfields · 800 ft
- AMERICAN EXPORT CORPORATION WIREToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- KIM BRYANBrownfields · 1100 ft
- KEN AFTONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BILL MORANBrownfields · 1500 ft
- MANHATTAN BEACH CLEANERSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SGVCOG (ALAMEDA CORRIDOR EAST) - DURFEEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- HUNG NGUYENBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius.
Measured from Manhattan Beach'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 Manhattan Beach.
Total Sites
10,380
within ~10 miles of Manhattan Beach
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
31 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manhattan Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manhattan Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manhattan Beach, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 9,281 sites within ~10 miles of Manhattan Beach. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Manhattan Beach
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 Manhattan Beach average
Your land is one point inside Manhattan Beach
Everything above resolves to Manhattan Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Manhattan Beach Average
Manhattan Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Manhattan Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Manhattan Beach
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manhattan Beach's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manhattan Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manhattan Beach, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manhattan Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manhattan Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manhattan Beach average
How we know this about Manhattan Beach
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Manhattan Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Manhattan Beach?
Manhattan Beach has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows California's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Jan 19 - Mar 19 and their first fall hard freeze around Nov 29 - Dec 12, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manhattan Beach?
The federal record around Manhattan Beach runs heavier than most — 10,380 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (9,281), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Manhattan Beach?
As the season closes around California's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Nov 29 - Dec 12 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manhattan Beach's scale — its 10b band and its zone 10b. Your yard writes its own version of Manhattan Beach'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 Manhattan Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Manhattan Beach's own scale — the 2,518 acres it covers and 10,380 documented sites around it; 3 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manhattan Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 10,380 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manhattan Beach, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manhattan Beach's boundary and the 2,518 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Manhattan Beach's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manhattan Beach's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom California
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manhattan Beach's 2,518 acres read through the state summaryfrom California
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manhattan Beach's 2,518 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manhattan Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,518 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 Manhattan Beach-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaManhattan Beach sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides