Mojave, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Mojave, 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 Mojave 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 Mojave — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mojave — the short answer
Mojave, California: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 37K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 37K 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 8b is Mojave's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mojave's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mojave
Each reading below is measured for Mojave itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMojave runs about 292 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
MeasuredMojave sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Mojave is in
Mojave sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mojave's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mojave
Every plant below cleared Mojave's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mojave?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Mojave
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mojave. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RE CAMELOT, LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- RE COLUMBIA 2, LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- 011N012W32E001SNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 011N012W32E002SNitrate · 0.9 mi
- GOLDEN QUEEN MINING COMPANYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- GOLDEN QUEEN MINING COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- Four StarMining · 1.4 mi
- TOSCO MOJAVE TERMINALBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Pride of Mojave MineMining · 1.6 mi
- ALON ASPHALT COMPANYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC/ MOJAVE SEPARATOR STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- PARAMOUNT PETROLEUMToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mojave'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 Mojave.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Mojave
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mojave
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mojave
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mojave, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mojave — Brownfields (120 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mojave
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 Mojave average
Your land is one point inside Mojave
Everything above resolves to Mojave as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 37K 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 Mojave Average
Mojave Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mojave
- ●One soil character for all of Mojave
- ●Frost dates read at Mojave's scale: Feb 11 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mojave's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mojave
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mojave, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mojave averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mojave — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mojave average
How we know this about Mojave
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 Mojave’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 Mojave
When does frost risk typically end in Mojave?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mojave typically lands around Feb 11, 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 Mar 4.
When is the first frost in Mojave?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mojave typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mojave?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mojave sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 16, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mojave?
The federal record around Mojave is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (120), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Mojave?
From about Oct 31 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 Nov 30 (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 Nov 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mojave's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mojave'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 Mojave’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mojave's own scale — its own ~292-day season between 28°F freezes, the 37,359 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mojave's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mojave's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 11 and Nov 30 and the ~292-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mojave, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mojave's boundary and the 37,359 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mojave sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mojave's 37,359 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern 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 Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mojave's 37,359 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mojave you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 37,359 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Mojave-wide figureread your own land →