Milford, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Milford, 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 Milford 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 Milford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milford — the short answer
Milford, California: USDA zone 7a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7a is Milford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milford's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Milford's own 30-year record measures about 165 days between 28°F killing freezes — 31 days longer than Lassen County's ~134. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Milford's ~165-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milford
Each reading below is measured for Milford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilford runs about 165 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMilford sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Milford is in
Milford sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Milford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lassen County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Milford
Every plant below cleared Milford's own zone 7a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milford?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Milford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 027N014E35C001MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- USDA USFS R05 MILFORD RANGER DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PLUMAS-SIERRA RECBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- CoronaMining · 3.0 mi
- Golden HorseshoeMining · 5.3 mi
- Copper King and Copper QueenMining · 5.4 mi
- Copper King & Copper QueenMining · 5.5 mi
- PlincoMining · 5.9 mi
- Honey LakeMining · 6.9 mi
- 028N013E25F001MNitrate · 8.9 mi
Measured from Milford'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 Milford.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Milford
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 Milford average
Your land is one point inside Milford
Everything above resolves to Milford as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Milford Average
Milford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Milford
- ●One soil character for all of Milford
- ●Frost dates read at Milford's scale: May 2 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milford's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milford, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milford average
How we know this about Milford
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 Milford’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 Milford
When does frost risk typically end in Milford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milford typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Milford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milford typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milford sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 30, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milford?
The federal record around Milford shows 13 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (7), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Milford?
From about Sep 14 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 Oct 14 (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 Oct 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milford's scale — its 7a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milford'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 Milford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Milford's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,387 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 14 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milford, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milford's boundary and the 3,387 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Milford sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milford's 3,387 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lassen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lassen 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 Lassen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milford's 3,387 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,387 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Milford-wide figureread your own land →
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