Mono City, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mono City, 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 Mono City 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 Mono City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mono City — the short answer
Mono City, California: USDA zone 7a, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Mono City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mono City's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mono City
Each reading below is measured for Mono City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMono City runs about 133 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
MeasuredMono City 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 Mono City is in
Mono City sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mono City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Mono City
Every plant below cleared Mono City's own zone 7a and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mono City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — 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 Mono City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mono City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONSPEC INC DBA CONSTRUCTION SPECIALTYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MONO COUNTY - 2020 MOUNTAINVIEW FIREBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SantiagoMining · 2.2 mi
- Montecito MineMining · 2.3 mi
- Sterling Detroit Copper MineMining · 2.3 mi
- Goleta ConsolidatedMining · 2.3 mi
- Goleta MineMining · 2.4 mi
- Lake View CopperMining · 2.6 mi
- SCE LEE VINING SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- CALTRANS DISTRICT 09Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- Log Cabin and Sunrise GroupMining · 4.1 mi
- Claim LocationMining · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mono City'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 Mono City.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Mono City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mono City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mono City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mono City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Mono City. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Mono City
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 Mono City average
Your land is one point inside Mono City
Everything above resolves to Mono City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Mono City Average
Mono City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mono City
- ●One soil character for all of Mono City
- ●Frost dates read at Mono City's scale: May 22 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mono City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mono City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mono City, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mono City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mono City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mono City average
How we know this about Mono City
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 Mono City’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 Mono City
When does frost risk typically end in Mono City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mono City typically lands around May 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Mono City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mono City typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mono City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mono City sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 18, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mono City?
The federal record around Mono City is a meaningful one — 40 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (24), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in Mono City?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mono City 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mono City's scale — its 7a band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mono City'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 Mono City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mono City's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,016 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mono City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mono City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Oct 2 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mono City, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mono City's boundary and the 5,016 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mono City's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mono City's 5,016 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mono City's 5,016 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mono City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,016 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Mono City-wide figureread your own land →