Mission Hills, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Mission Hills, 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 Mission Hills 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 Mission Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mission Hills — the short answer
Mission Hills, California: USDA zone 9b, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 774 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 774 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 Mission Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mission Hills's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mission Hills
Each reading below is measured for Mission Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMission Hills runs about 331 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
MeasuredMission Hills 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 Mission Hills is in
Mission Hills sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Mission Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Mission Hills
Every plant below cleared Mission Hills's own zone 9b and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mission Hills?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Mission Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mission Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOMVROOMSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- VICKI BELTRENBrownfields · 1800 ft
- MISSION HILLS COMMUNITY SERVICE DISTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- 007N034W14F003SNitrate · 2500 ft
- 007N034W14G001SNitrate · 0.6 mi
- BEDLO INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 007N034W15P001SNitrate · 0.8 mi
- SENTINEL PEAK RESOURCES CALIFORNIA LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 007N034W22J002SNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 007N034W22H001SNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 007N034W15D001SNitrate · 1.1 mi
- 007N034W22D003SNitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mission Hills'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 Mission Hills.
Total Sites
920
within ~10 miles of Mission Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mission Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mission Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mission Hills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 664 sites within ~10 miles of Mission Hills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mission Hills
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 Mission Hills average
Your land is one point inside Mission Hills
Everything above resolves to Mission Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 774 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 Mission Hills Average
Mission Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Mission Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Mission Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Mission Hills's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mission Hills's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mission Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mission Hills, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mission Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mission Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mission Hills average
How we know this about Mission Hills
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 Mission Hills’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 Mission Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Mission Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mission Hills typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Mission Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mission Hills typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mission Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mission Hills sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Nov 28, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mission Hills?
The federal record around Mission Hills is a meaningful one — 920 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (664), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Mission Hills?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mission Hills's scale — its 9b band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mission Hills'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 Mission Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mission Hills's own scale — its own ~331-day season between 28°F freezes, the 774 acres it covers and 920 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mission Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mission Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 15 and Dec 12 and the ~331-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 920 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mission Hills, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mission Hills's boundary and the 774 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mission Hills's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mission Hills's 774 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mission Hills's 774 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mission Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 774 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Mission Hills-wide figureread your own land →