Mountain Meadows, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mountain Meadows, 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 Mountain Meadows 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 Mountain Meadows — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mountain Meadows — the short answer
Mountain Meadows, California: USDA zone 8b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Mountain Meadows's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain Meadows's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain Meadows
Each reading below is measured for Mountain Meadows itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMountain Meadows runs about 186 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMountain Meadows 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 Mountain Meadows is in
Mountain Meadows sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mountain Meadows'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 Mountain Meadows
Every plant below cleared Mountain Meadows's own zone 8b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain Meadows?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Mountain Meadows
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain Meadows. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HERITAGE FARMS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 032S033E33D001MNitrate · 1.4 mi
- JOHN WEINERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 032S033E29K001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 032S033E27D001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 032S033E28C001MNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 032S033E21R001MNitrate · 2.2 mi
- RST CRANES INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- 032S033E26G001MNitrate · 2.4 mi
- 032S033E26R001MNitrate · 2.4 mi
- SHEPPARD'S AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- SEE EMPIRE DBA HYDROCHROMEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain Meadows'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 Mountain Meadows.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Mountain Meadows
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain Meadows
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain Meadows
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain Meadows, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mountain Meadows — PFAS (5 sites) and Brownfields (131 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mountain Meadows
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 Mountain Meadows average
Your land is one point inside Mountain Meadows
Everything above resolves to Mountain Meadows as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mountain Meadows Average
Mountain Meadows Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mountain Meadows
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain Meadows
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain Meadows's scale: May 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain Meadows's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain Meadows
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain Meadows, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain Meadows averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain Meadows — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Meadows average
How we know this about Mountain Meadows
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 Mountain Meadows’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 Mountain Meadows
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain Meadows?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Meadows typically lands around May 1, 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 May 22.
When is the first frost in Mountain Meadows?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Meadows typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain Meadows?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Meadows sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 20, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain Meadows?
The federal record around Mountain Meadows runs heavier than most — 203 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (131), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Mountain Meadows?
From about Oct 4 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 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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mountain Meadows's scale — its 8b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain Meadows'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 Mountain Meadows’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mountain Meadows's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,632 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain Meadows's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mountain Meadows's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Nov 3 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain Meadows, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain Meadows's boundary and the 2,632 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mountain Meadows sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain Meadows's 2,632 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 Mountain Meadows's 2,632 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain Meadows you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,632 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 Mountain Meadows-wide figureread your own land →