McClellan Park, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — 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: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in McClellan Park, 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 McClellan Park 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 McClellan Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McClellan Park — the short answer
McClellan Park, California: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Sacramento County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Sacramento County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is McClellan Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McClellan Park's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McClellan Park
Each reading below is measured for McClellan Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcClellan Park runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Sacramento County, the closest normal to McClellan Park) — 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
MeasuredMcClellan Park 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 McClellan Park is in
McClellan Park sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at McClellan Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sacramento County.
What Grows in McClellan Park
Every plant below cleared McClellan Park's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McClellan Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near McClellan Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McClellan Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCLELLAN AIR FORCE BASE (GROUND WATER CONTAMINATION)Superfund · 1200 ft
- SIEMENS INDUSTRY INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- TELFER PAVEMENT TECHNOLOGIES, LLC MARTINEZBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MCCLELLAN AIRTANKER BASEToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- CA DEPT OF FORESTRY AVIATION MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- AAR MANUFACTURING INC DBA AAR COMPOSITESBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FLYERS ENERGY- MCCLELLAN TRUCK YARDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AAR-ATICSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ELITE LEATHER CAREBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AIRSTRIKE FIREFIGHTERS LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AXCESS AVIATION MAINTENANCE SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- VECTOR DISEASE CONTROL INTERNATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McClellan Park'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 McClellan Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McClellan Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McClellan Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McClellan Park, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,655 sites within ~10 miles of McClellan Park. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 McClellan Park
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 McClellan Park average
Your land is one point inside McClellan Park
Everything above resolves to McClellan Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sacramento 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 McClellan Park Average
McClellan Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across McClellan Park
- ●One soil character for all of McClellan Park
- ●Frost dates read at McClellan Park's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McClellan Park's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McClellan Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McClellan Park, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McClellan Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around McClellan Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McClellan Park average
How we know this about McClellan Park
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 Sacramento 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 McClellan Park
When does frost risk typically end in McClellan Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McClellan Park typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in McClellan Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McClellan Park typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McClellan Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McClellan Park sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 28, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McClellan Park?
The federal record around McClellan Park runs heavier than most — 5,262 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,655), the nearest Superfund record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in McClellan Park?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McClellan Park's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McClellan Park'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 McClellan Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at McClellan Park's own scale — the 2,604 acres it covers and 5,262 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McClellan Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 5,262 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McClellan Park, the closest Superfund record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McClellan Park's boundary and the 2,604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McClellan Park's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McClellan Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sacramento County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McClellan Park's 2,604 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sacramento County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sacramento 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 Sacramento County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McClellan Park's 2,604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McClellan Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,604 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.2 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 McClellan Park-wide figureread your own land →