Mountain View, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mountain View, 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 View 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 View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mountain View — the short answer
Mountain View, California: USDA zone 10a, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- Santa Clara County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Santa Clara County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- Santa Clara County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Santa Clara County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Mountain View's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain View's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain View
Each reading below is measured for Mountain View itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMountain View runs about 331 days between hard freezes (read from Santa Clara County, the closest normal to Mountain View) — 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 View 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 Mountain View is in
Mountain View sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Mountain View's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Clara County.
What Grows in Mountain View
Every plant below cleared Mountain View's own zone 10a and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain View?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Mountain View
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Mountain View, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mountain View
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain View. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED SCIENTIFIC CORPORATIONBrownfields · 800 ft
- FERMA CORPORATIONBrownfields · 850 ft
- C K TOOL COMP INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- SQUAGLIA MANUFACTURING COMPANYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ENGLEHARD MILLIS WESTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- INNERCONN TECHBrownfields · 1200 ft
- H211 LLC DBA BLUE CITY HOLDINGS LLCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- RECHE CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MMR TECHNOLOGIES, INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CRYSTACOMM INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- TORQUE-A-MATICBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BARKLEY SQUARE APARTMENTSBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain View'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 View.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain View
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain View
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain View, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 7,472 sites within ~10 miles of Mountain View. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Mountain View
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 View average
Your land is one point inside Mountain View
Everything above resolves to Mountain View as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Santa Clara County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Mountain View Average
Mountain View Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Mountain View
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain View
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain View's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain View's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain View
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain View, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain View averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain View average
How we know this about Mountain View
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 at Santa Clara 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 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 Mountain View
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain View?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain View typically lands around Jan 17, 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 Feb 7.
When is the first frost in Mountain View?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain View typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain View?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain View sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Nov 30, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain View?
The federal record around Mountain View runs heavier than most — 8,403 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (7,472), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 View?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mountain View's scale — its 10a band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain View'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 View’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mountain View's own scale — the 7,653 acres it covers and 8,403 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain View's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 8,403 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain View, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain View's boundary and the 7,653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mountain View's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mountain Viewlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mountain View has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Santa Clara County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain View's 7,653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Clara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mountain View's 7,653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain View you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,653 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 View-wide figureread your own land →
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