Middletown, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Middletown, 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 Middletown 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 Middletown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Middletown — the short answer
Middletown, California: USDA zone 9a, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Lake County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Middletown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middletown's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middletown
Each reading below is measured for Middletown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMiddletown runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Lake County, the closest normal to Middletown) — 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
MeasuredMiddletown sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Middletown is in
Middletown sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Middletown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Middletown
Every plant below cleared Middletown's own zone 9a and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middletown?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Middletown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middletown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTH LAKE COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTBrownfields · 650 ft
- LAKE COUNTY VALLEY WILDFIRE 2015Brownfields · 1300 ft
- CAL FIRE MIDDLETOWN STATIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Bush St WellNitrate · 1600 ft
- FIVE STAR TOWINGBrownfields · 1800 ft
- B&G TIRE OF MIDDLETOWNBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ANDERSON SPRINGS MERCURY SITESuperfund · 2000 ft
- MIDDLETOWN AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRBrownfields · 2100 ft
- GR HARDESTER LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- STORE 24Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STORE 24 EXPRESS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FASTTRACK OIL CHANGE INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middletown'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 Middletown.
Total Sites
276
within ~10 miles of Middletown
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middletown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middletown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middletown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Middletown — Mining (182 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
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 Middletown
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 Middletown average
Your land is one point inside Middletown
Everything above resolves to Middletown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake 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 Middletown Average
Middletown Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Middletown
- ●One soil character for all of Middletown
- ●Frost dates read at Middletown's scale: Feb 26 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middletown's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middletown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middletown, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middletown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middletown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middletown average
How we know this about Middletown
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 Lake 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 Middletown
When does frost risk typically end in Middletown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middletown typically lands around Feb 26, 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 Mar 19.
When is the first frost in Middletown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middletown typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middletown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middletown sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 27, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middletown?
The federal record around Middletown runs heavier than most — 276 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (182), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Middletown?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middletown's scale — its 9a band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middletown'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 Middletown’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Middletown's own scale — the 1,180 acres it covers and 276 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middletown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 276 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middletown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middletown's boundary and the 1,180 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Middletown's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Middletown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Middletown's 1,180 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middletown's 1,180 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middletown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,180 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Middletown-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaMiddletown sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides