Monterey, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Monterey, 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 Monterey 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 Monterey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Monterey — the short answer
Monterey, California: USDA zone 10a, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Jan 19 - Mar 19
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Nov 29 - Dec 12
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 10a is Monterey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monterey
Each reading below is measured for Monterey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMonterey sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Monterey is in
Monterey sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Monterey's own centroid rather than borrowed from its county.
What Grows in Monterey
Every plant below cleared Monterey's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Monterey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monterey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE SPORTS CAR SHOPBrownfields · 450 ft
- FORMER VAPOR CLEANERSBrownfields · 500 ft
- VAPOR CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- MONTEREY BAY GAS MINIMARTBrownfields · 550 ft
- MONTEREY BAY GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION #702270Brownfields · 600 ft
- JOSE'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 700 ft
- MONTEREY JAGUAR ROLLS FERRARIBrownfields · 800 ft
- CALTRANS DIST 5 EA 05-1C9904Brownfields · 950 ft
- WAYSIDE GARAGEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- GUNTER MADSEN AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- FIX AUTO MONTEREYBrownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius.
Measured from Monterey'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 Monterey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monterey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monterey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monterey, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 676 sites within ~10 miles of Monterey. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Monterey
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 Monterey average
Your land is one point inside Monterey
Everything above resolves to Monterey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 city 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 Monterey Average
Monterey Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Monterey
- ●One soil character for all of Monterey
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monterey's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monterey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monterey, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monterey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monterey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monterey average
How we know this about Monterey
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Monterey
When does frost risk typically end in Monterey?
Monterey has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows California's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Jan 19 - Mar 19 and their first fall hard freeze around Nov 29 - Dec 12, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monterey?
The federal record around Monterey is a meaningful one — 793 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (676), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Monterey?
As the season closes around California's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Nov 29 - Dec 12 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monterey's scale — its 10a band and its zone 10a. Your yard writes its own version of Monterey'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 Monterey’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Monterey's own scale — the 5,533 acres it covers and 793 documented sites around it; 3 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monterey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 793 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monterey, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monterey's boundary and the 5,533 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Monterey's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monterey's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom California
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monterey's 5,533 acres read through the state summaryfrom California
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monterey's 5,533 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monterey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,533 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Monterey-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaMonterey sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides