Montgomery Creek, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Montgomery Creek, 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 Montgomery Creek 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 Montgomery Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montgomery Creek — the short answer
Montgomery Creek, California: USDA zone 9a, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 9a is Montgomery Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montgomery Creek's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montgomery Creek
Each reading below is measured for Montgomery Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontgomery Creek runs about 284 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
MeasuredMontgomery Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Montgomery Creek is in
Montgomery Creek sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Montgomery Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shasta County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Montgomery Creek
Every plant below cleared Montgomery Creek's own zone 9a and its 284-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montgomery Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Montgomery Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montgomery Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 035N001E29F001MNitrate · 1.9 mi
- INTERNATIONAL LINE BUILDERS, INC.Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- KLEIN EQUIPMENT SERVICESBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- 035N001E27R001MNitrate · 3.9 mi
- PG&E ROUND MOUNTAIN SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- CartwrightMining · 4.3 mi
- Highgrade Lead ProspectMining · 4.9 mi
- Hartford GroupMining · 6.6 mi
- St. JohnMining · 6.9 mi
- St John ProspectMining · 7.0 mi
- HATCHET RIDGE WIND LLCBrownfields · 8.8 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montgomery Creek'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 Montgomery Creek.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montgomery Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Montgomery Creek
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 Montgomery Creek average
Your land is one point inside Montgomery Creek
Everything above resolves to Montgomery Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Montgomery Creek Average
Montgomery Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Montgomery Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Montgomery Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Montgomery Creek's scale: Feb 22 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montgomery Creek's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montgomery Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montgomery Creek, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montgomery Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montgomery Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montgomery Creek average
How we know this about Montgomery Creek
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 Montgomery Creek’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 Montgomery Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Montgomery Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montgomery Creek typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 15.
When is the first frost in Montgomery Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montgomery Creek typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 284 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montgomery Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montgomery Creek sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 19, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montgomery Creek?
The federal record around Montgomery Creek shows 23 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (12), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Montgomery Creek?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montgomery Creek's scale — its 9a band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montgomery Creek'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 Montgomery Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Montgomery Creek's own scale — its own ~284-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,109 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montgomery Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montgomery Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 22 and Dec 3 and the ~284-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montgomery Creek, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montgomery Creek's boundary and the 2,109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Montgomery Creek sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast 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 Montgomery Creek's 2,109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montgomery Creek's 2,109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montgomery Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Montgomery Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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