Mokelumne Hill, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mokelumne Hill, 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 Mokelumne Hill 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 Mokelumne Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mokelumne Hill — the short answer
Mokelumne Hill, California: USDA zone 9b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Calaveras County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Calaveras County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Calaveras County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Calaveras County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Mokelumne Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mokelumne Hill's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mokelumne Hill
Each reading below is measured for Mokelumne Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMokelumne Hill runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Calaveras County, the closest normal to Mokelumne Hill) — 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
MeasuredMokelumne Hill 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 Mokelumne Hill is in
Mokelumne Hill sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Mokelumne Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calaveras County.
What Grows in Mokelumne Hill
Every plant below cleared Mokelumne Hill's own zone 9b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mokelumne Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Mokelumne Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mokelumne Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HESS & HESS CONST INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Easyz BirdMining · 0.5 mi
- Unnamed LocationMining · 0.7 mi
- S & S Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- S & S TRADING POSTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- UnknownMining · 1.0 mi
- JOHN W. HERTZIGBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- VALLEY SPRINGS ZIPPY MARTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Lamphear & MoserMining · 1.6 mi
- Lamphear and MoserMining · 1.6 mi
- DigitalliMining · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mokelumne Hill'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 Mokelumne Hill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mokelumne Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mokelumne Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mokelumne Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mokelumne Hill — Mining (105 sites) and Brownfields (197 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mokelumne Hill
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 Mokelumne Hill average
Your land is one point inside Mokelumne Hill
Everything above resolves to Mokelumne Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calaveras 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 Mokelumne Hill Average
Mokelumne Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Mokelumne Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Mokelumne Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Mokelumne Hill's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mokelumne Hill's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mokelumne Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mokelumne Hill, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mokelumne Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mokelumne Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mokelumne Hill average
How we know this about Mokelumne Hill
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 Calaveras 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 Mokelumne Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Mokelumne Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mokelumne Hill typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Mokelumne Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mokelumne Hill typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mokelumne Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mokelumne Hill sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 22, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mokelumne Hill?
The federal record around Mokelumne Hill runs heavier than most — 349 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (197), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mokelumne Hill?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mokelumne Hill's scale — its 9b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mokelumne Hill'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 Mokelumne Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mokelumne Hill's own scale — the 1,971 acres it covers and 349 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mokelumne Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 349 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mokelumne Hill, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mokelumne Hill's boundary and the 1,971 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mokelumne Hill's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mokelumne Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calaveras County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mokelumne Hill's 1,971 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calaveras County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calaveras 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 Calaveras County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mokelumne Hill's 1,971 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mokelumne Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,971 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Mokelumne Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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