Newark, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Newark, 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 Newark 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 Newark — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Newark — the short answer
Newark, California: USDA zone 10a, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 12
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Alameda County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Newark's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newark's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newark
Each reading below is measured for Newark itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNewark runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Alameda County, the closest normal to Newark) — 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
MeasuredNewark 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 Newark is in
Newark sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Newark's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alameda County.
What Grows in Newark
Plants matched to Newark's USDA zones 10a, 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 Newark?
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 Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Newark
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Newark, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newark
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newark. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ITRENEW INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SPECTRUM INK COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PICK-N-PULL SAN JOSE AUTO DISMANTLERSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- NEWARK INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BAY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SANMINA CORPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MORTON INTERNATIONAL INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- MORTON INTERNATIONAL INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- AMCOR SUNCLIPSE NORTH AMERICABrownfields · 1.1 mi
- STANFORD UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- QUALITY QUARTZ ENGINEERINGBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- FXO 1399 BAY AREA SGPCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newark'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 Newark.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newark
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newark
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newark, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 6,892 sites within ~10 miles of Newark. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Newark
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 Newark average
Your land is one point inside Newark
Everything above resolves to Newark as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Alameda 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 Newark Average
Newark Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Newark
- ●One soil character for all of Newark
- ●Frost dates read at Newark's scale: Jan 12 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newark's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newark
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newark, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newark averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newark — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newark average
How we know this about Newark
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 Alameda 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 Newark
When does frost risk typically end in Newark?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newark typically lands around Jan 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Newark?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newark typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newark?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newark sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 12 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 2 to Nov 28, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newark?
The federal record around Newark runs heavier than most — 7,844 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (6,892), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Newark?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newark's scale — its 10a band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newark'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 Newark’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Newark's own scale — the 8,908 acres it covers and 7,844 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newark's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 7,844 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newark, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newark's boundary and the 8,908 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Newark's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newarklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Newark has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Alameda County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newark's 8,908 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alameda 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 Alameda 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 Alameda County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newark's 8,908 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newark you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,908 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Newark-wide figureread your own land →