Markleeville, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Markleeville, 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 Markleeville 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 Markleeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Markleeville — the short answer
Markleeville, California: USDA zone 6b, about 124 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~124
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 6b is Markleeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Markleeville's 124-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Markleeville
Each reading below is measured for Markleeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarkleeville runs about 124 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMarkleeville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Markleeville is in
Markleeville sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Markleeville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alpine County.
What Grows in Markleeville
Every plant below cleared Markleeville's own zone 6b and its 124-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Markleeville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Markleeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Markleeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS GROVER HOT SPRINGS SPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 010N020E20Q001MNitrate · 1.2 mi
- USDA USFS R05 MARKLEEVILLE CABrownfields · 2.8 mi
- ExchequerMining · 3.9 mi
- Exchequer and Ixl MinesMining · 4.7 mi
- I X LMining · 5.0 mi
- ALPINE COUNTY UNIFIED SCOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- 011N019E35R001MNitrate · 5.7 mi
- ALPINE COUNTY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- Mogul Peak ProspectMining · 5.8 mi
- GlobeMining · 5.8 mi
- StellaMining · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Markleeville'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 Markleeville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Markleeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Markleeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Markleeville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 39 sites within ~10 miles of Markleeville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Markleeville
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 Markleeville average
Your land is one point inside Markleeville
Everything above resolves to Markleeville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Markleeville Average
Markleeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Markleeville
- ●One soil character for all of Markleeville
- ●Frost dates read at Markleeville's scale: Jun 1 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Markleeville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Markleeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Markleeville, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Markleeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Markleeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Markleeville average
How we know this about Markleeville
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 Markleeville’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 Markleeville
When does frost risk typically end in Markleeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Markleeville typically lands around Jun 1, 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 Jun 22.
When is the first frost in Markleeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Markleeville typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 124 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Markleeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Markleeville sees about 124 frost-free days — roughly Jun 1 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 22 to Sep 19, about 89 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Markleeville?
The federal record around Markleeville runs heavier than most — 53 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (39), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Markleeville?
With about 124 frost-free days between hard freezes, Markleeville rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 152 to 180 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 1 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Markleeville's scale — its 6b band and its 124-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Markleeville'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 Markleeville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Markleeville's own scale — its own ~124-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,180 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Markleeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Markleeville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 1 and Oct 3 and the ~124-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Markleeville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Markleeville's boundary and the 4,180 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~124-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Markleeville's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Markleeville's 4,180 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alpine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alpine 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 Alpine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Markleeville's 4,180 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Markleeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,180 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Markleeville-wide figureread your own land →