Millerton, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Millerton, 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 Millerton 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 Millerton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Millerton — the short answer
Millerton, California: USDA zone 9b, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- Fresno 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 Fresno County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Millerton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millerton's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millerton
Each reading below is measured for Millerton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMillerton runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from Fresno County, the closest normal to Millerton) — 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
MeasuredMillerton 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 Millerton is in
Millerton sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Millerton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fresno County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Millerton
Every plant below cleared Millerton's own zone 9b and its 329-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Millerton?
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 16 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Millerton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millerton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FresnoMining · 0.8 mi
- TABLE MOUNTAIN RANCHERIA DBA EAGLE SPRINGS GOLF & COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MILLERTON LAKE SRABrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CS & FD MEDICAL WASTE DISPOSAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- TABLE MOUNTAIN RANCHERIA DBA TABLE MOUNTAIN CASINOBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- TABLE MOUNTAIN RANCHERIABrownfields · 1.9 mi
- FRONKS MOUNTAIN DRILLING CO INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- MILLERTON COUNTRY STORE*Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FRIANT DEPOT SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CITY OF CLOVISBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- ROBISON PREZIOSO INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS LLCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millerton'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 Millerton.
Total Sites
250
within ~10 miles of Millerton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millerton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millerton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millerton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Millerton — PFAS (3 sites) and Brownfields (176 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Millerton
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 Millerton average
Your land is one point inside Millerton
Everything above resolves to Millerton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fresno 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 Millerton Average
Millerton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Millerton
- ●One soil character for all of Millerton
- ●Frost dates read at Millerton's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millerton's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millerton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millerton, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millerton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millerton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millerton average
How we know this about Millerton
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 Fresno 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 Millerton
When does frost risk typically end in Millerton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millerton typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Millerton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millerton 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 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Millerton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millerton sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Nov 27, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Millerton?
The federal record around Millerton is a meaningful one — 250 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (176), the nearest Mining record about 0.8 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 Millerton?
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 Millerton's scale — its 9b band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millerton'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 Millerton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Millerton's own scale — the 1,254 acres it covers and 250 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millerton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 250 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millerton, the closest Mining record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millerton's boundary and the 1,254 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~329-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Millerton sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Millerton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fresno County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millerton's 1,254 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fresno County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fresno 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 Fresno County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Millerton's 1,254 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millerton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,254 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Millerton-wide figureread your own land →