Meadow Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Meadow Valley, 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 Meadow Valley 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 Meadow Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Meadow Valley — the short answer
Meadow Valley, California: USDA zone 7b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7b is Meadow Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meadow Valley's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meadow Valley
Each reading below is measured for Meadow Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMeadow Valley runs about 205 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMeadow Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Meadow Valley is in
Meadow Valley sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Meadow Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in Meadow Valley
Every plant below cleared Meadow Valley's own zone 7b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Meadow Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Meadow Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meadow Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tip TopMining · 1.0 mi
- FlorenceMining · 1.1 mi
- Fuller ClaimsMining · 1.2 mi
- HillsideMining · 1.8 mi
- Sect. 36 DepositMining · 3.4 mi
- Section 36Mining · 3.4 mi
- Snow White Nos 1-3Mining · 3.5 mi
- WHITEHORSE LANDFILLSuperfund · 4.0 mi
- Cedar Flat ClaimMining · 4.7 mi
- Shennandoah ClaimMining · 5.8 mi
- 023N007E02F001MNitrate · 5.8 mi
- Eddelbuttel OccurrenceMining · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meadow Valley'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 Meadow Valley.
Total Sites
134
within ~10 miles of Meadow Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meadow Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meadow Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meadow Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Meadow Valley — Mining (54 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Meadow Valley
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 Meadow Valley average
Your land is one point inside Meadow Valley
Everything above resolves to Meadow Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Meadow Valley Average
Meadow Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Meadow Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Meadow Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Meadow Valley's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meadow Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meadow Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meadow Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meadow Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meadow Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meadow Valley average
How we know this about Meadow Valley
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 Meadow Valley’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 Meadow Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Meadow Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meadow Valley typically lands around Apr 17, 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 May 8.
When is the first frost in Meadow Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meadow Valley typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meadow Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meadow Valley sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 25, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meadow Valley?
The federal record around Meadow Valley is a meaningful one — 134 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (63), the nearest Mining record about 1.0 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 Meadow Valley?
From about Oct 9 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meadow Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meadow Valley'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 Meadow Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Meadow Valley's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,453 acres it covers and 134 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meadow Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meadow Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 8 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 134 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meadow Valley, the closest Mining record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meadow Valley's boundary and the 5,453 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Meadow Valley's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Meadow Valley's 5,453 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meadow Valley's 5,453 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meadow Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,453 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.0 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 Meadow Valley-wide figureread your own land →