Mineral, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Mineral, 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 Mineral 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 Mineral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mineral — the short answer
Mineral, California: USDA zone 7a, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 28K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~137
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 28K 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 Mineral's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mineral's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mineral
Each reading below is measured for Mineral itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMineral runs about 137 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMineral 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 Mineral is in
Mineral sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mineral's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tehama County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mineral
Every plant below cleared Mineral's own zone 7a and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mineral?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Mineral
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mineral. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEHEMA COUNTY SANITARY LANDFILL AGENCYBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- MICHAEL HANBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- CAL TRANS MINERAL MAINT STNBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- USDOI NPS LASSEN VOLCANIC NATL PARKBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 8.2 mi
- 028N005E04Q001MNitrate · 9.2 mi
Measured from Mineral'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 Mineral.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mineral
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Mineral
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 Mineral average
Your land is one point inside Mineral
Everything above resolves to Mineral as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 28K 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 Mineral Average
Mineral Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mineral
- ●One soil character for all of Mineral
- ●Frost dates read at Mineral's scale: Jun 1 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mineral's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mineral
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mineral, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mineral averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mineral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mineral average
How we know this about Mineral
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 Mineral’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 Mineral
When does frost risk typically end in Mineral?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mineral typically lands around Jun 1, 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 Jun 22.
When is the first frost in Mineral?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mineral typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mineral?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mineral sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly Jun 1 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 22 to Oct 2, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mineral?
The federal record around Mineral is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (5), the nearest Brownfields record about 4.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Mineral?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mineral rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 1 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mineral's scale — its 7a band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mineral'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 Mineral’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mineral's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 28,354 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mineral's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mineral's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 1 and Oct 16 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mineral, the closest Brownfields record about 4.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mineral's boundary and the 28,354 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mineral sits in the Cascades — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mineral's 28,354 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tehama County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tehama 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 Tehama County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mineral's 28,354 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mineral you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,354 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 4.6 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 Mineral-wide figureread your own land →