Mountain Ranch, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Mountain Ranch, 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 Ranch 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 Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mountain Ranch — the short answer
Mountain Ranch, California: USDA zone 9a, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- 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
- 3K 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 9a is Mountain Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain Ranch's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Mountain Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMountain Ranch runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Calaveras County, the closest normal to Mountain Ranch) — 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
MeasuredMountain Ranch 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 Mountain Ranch is in
Mountain Ranch sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mountain Ranch's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Calaveras County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mountain Ranch
Every plant below cleared Mountain Ranch's own zone 9a and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain Ranch?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Mountain Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRAIG TRUCKING COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PAUL DE ANGELISBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EAGLE AUTOMOTIVE EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Big John's Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BIG JOHN'SBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CALAVERAS COUNTY-USED OIL COLLECTIONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- R.M.B GARAGEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- WAKEFIELD TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 3M LANE WILDLAND FIRE SITESuperfund · 1.7 mi
- Mar John Mines Co.Mining · 2.0 mi
- WinchesterMining · 2.0 mi
- AlpineMining · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain Ranch'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 Ranch.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Mountain Ranch
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain Ranch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mountain Ranch — Mining (44 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Mountain Ranch
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 Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Mountain Ranch
Everything above resolves to Mountain Ranch as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K 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 Mountain Ranch Average
Mountain Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Mountain Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain Ranch's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain Ranch's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain Ranch, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Ranch average
How we know this about Mountain Ranch
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 Mountain Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Ranch 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 Mountain Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Ranch 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 Mountain Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Ranch 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 Mountain Ranch?
The federal record around Mountain Ranch runs heavier than most — 189 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (122), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Ranch?
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 Mountain Ranch's scale — its 9a band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain Ranch'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 Ranch’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mountain Ranch's own scale — the 2,502 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain Ranch, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain Ranch's boundary and the 2,502 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mountain Ranch sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mountain Ranch 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 Mountain Ranch's 2,502 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 Mountain Ranch's 2,502 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,502 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Ranch-wide figureread your own land →