Mira Monte, 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 Mira Monte, 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 Mira Monte 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 Mira Monte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mira Monte — the short answer
Mira Monte, California: USDA zone 9b, about 315 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~315
- 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 9b is Mira Monte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mira Monte's 315-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mira Monte
Each reading below is measured for Mira Monte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMira Monte runs about 315 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredMira Monte 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 Mira Monte is in
Mira Monte sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Mira Monte's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ventura County is mostly Southern California Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mira Monte
Every plant below cleared Mira Monte's own zone 9b and its 315-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mira Monte?
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 Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Mira Monte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mira Monte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUALITY MUFFLERBrownfields · 550 ft
- GABRIELS IMPORTSBrownfields · 900 ft
- VENTURA REG SANITATION DISTRICTBrownfields · 1600 ft
- ORYX HAMP LEASEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SHINE WASH INC DBA/OJAI SPRING CARWASH & LUBEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- COUNTY OF VENTURA-SOLID WASTE MGMNTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- OJAI VALLEY SANITARY DISTRICTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JADONA HARPERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BM PROPERTIESBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BJORN REDDINGTONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- 004N023W16C008SNitrate · 0.5 mi
- COUNTY OF VENTURA, RMA PLANNNGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mira Monte'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 Mira Monte.
Total Sites
298
within ~10 miles of Mira Monte
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mira Monte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mira Monte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mira Monte, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 262 sites within ~10 miles of Mira Monte. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mira Monte
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 Mira Monte average
Your land is one point inside Mira Monte
Everything above resolves to Mira Monte as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mira Monte Average
Mira Monte Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Mira Monte
- ●One soil character for all of Mira Monte
- ●Frost dates read at Mira Monte's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mira Monte's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mira Monte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mira Monte, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mira Monte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mira Monte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mira Monte average
How we know this about Mira Monte
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 Mira Monte’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 Mira Monte
When does frost risk typically end in Mira Monte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mira Monte typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Mira Monte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mira Monte typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 315 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mira Monte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mira Monte sees about 315 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Dec 1, about 280 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mira Monte?
The federal record around Mira Monte is a meaningful one — 298 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (262), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Mira Monte?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mira Monte's scale — its 9b band and its 315-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mira Monte'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 Mira Monte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mira Monte's own scale — its own ~315-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,082 acres it covers and 298 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mira Monte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mira Monte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 3 and Dec 15 and the ~315-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 298 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mira Monte, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mira Monte's boundary and the 3,082 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~315-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mira Monte sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mira Monte's 3,082 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ventura County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ventura 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 Ventura County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mira Monte's 3,082 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mira Monte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,082 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 Mira Monte-wide figureread your own land →