Nevada City, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nevada City, 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 Nevada City 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 Nevada City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nevada City — the short answer
Nevada City, California: USDA zone 9a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- Nevada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Nevada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- Nevada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Nevada County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Nevada City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nevada City's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nevada City
Each reading below is measured for Nevada City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNevada City runs about 238 days between hard freezes (read from Nevada County, the closest normal to Nevada City) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNevada City 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 Nevada City is in
Nevada City sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Nevada City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nevada County.
What Grows in Nevada City
Plants matched to Nevada City's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Nevada City?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Nevada City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nevada City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF NEVADA CITY WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 600 ft
- Champion-Providence MineMining · 1100 ft
- MountaineerMining · 1400 ft
- Gold HillMining · 1600 ft
- Champion Con QtzMining · 1700 ft
- CITY OF NEVADA CITYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ARRIS INTERNATIONAL PLCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Wyoming QtzMining · 2400 ft
- MARK J BAUMAN DDSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DAVE'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SEARLS GROUP LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Nevada City Gas CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nevada City'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 Nevada City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nevada City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nevada City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nevada City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nevada City — Mining (171 sites) and Brownfields (335 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Nevada City
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 Nevada City average
Your land is one point inside Nevada City
Everything above resolves to Nevada City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nevada 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 Nevada City Average
Nevada City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Nevada City
- ●One soil character for all of Nevada City
- ●Frost dates read at Nevada City's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nevada City's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nevada City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nevada City, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nevada City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nevada City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nevada City average
How we know this about Nevada City
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 Nevada 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 Nevada City
When does frost risk typically end in Nevada City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nevada City typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Nevada City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nevada City typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nevada City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nevada City sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Nov 14, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nevada City?
The federal record around Nevada City runs heavier than most — 591 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (335), 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 Nevada City?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nevada City's scale — its 9a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nevada City'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 Nevada City’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Nevada City's own scale — the 1,437 acres it covers and 591 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nevada City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 591 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nevada City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nevada City's boundary and the 1,437 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Nevada City's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Nevada City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nevada County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nevada City's 1,437 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nevada County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nevada 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 Nevada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nevada City's 1,437 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nevada City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,437 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 Nevada City-wide figureread your own land →