Newport Beach, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Newport Beach, 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 Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Newport Beach — the short answer
Newport Beach, California: USDA zone 10b, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Jan 19 - Mar 19
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Nov 29 - Dec 12
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 15K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 10b is Newport Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newport Beach
Each reading below is measured for Newport Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNewport Beach sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Newport Beach is in
Newport Beach sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Newport Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from its county.
What Grows in Newport Beach
Every plant below cleared Newport Beach's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Newport Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newport Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADAM DEVIONEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- LE, NGUYENBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MIKE PICKETTBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Newport Beach Harbor PatrolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HILLS BOAT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- USCG MOORINGS CORONA DEL MARBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SHERIFF CORONER HARBOR PATROLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BALBOA YACHT CLUBBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN ELEVATORBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MARY BERRYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SARAJANE BARTHOLOMAEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius.
Measured from Newport Beach'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 Newport Beach.
Total Sites
6,548
within ~10 miles of Newport Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newport Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newport Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newport Beach, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 5,597 sites within ~10 miles of Newport Beach. 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 Newport Beach
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 Newport Beach average
Your land is one point inside Newport Beach
Everything above resolves to Newport Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 15K 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 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 Newport Beach Average
Newport Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Newport Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Newport Beach
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newport Beach's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newport Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newport Beach, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newport Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newport Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newport Beach average
How we know this about Newport Beach
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Newport Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Newport Beach?
Newport Beach has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows California's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Jan 19 - Mar 19 and their first fall hard freeze around Nov 29 - Dec 12, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newport Beach?
The federal record around Newport Beach is a meaningful one — 6,548 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,597), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Newport Beach?
As the season closes around California's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Nov 29 - Dec 12 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newport Beach's scale — its 10b band and its zone 10b. Your yard writes its own version of Newport Beach'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 Newport Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Newport Beach's own scale — the 15,230 acres it covers and 6,548 documented sites around it; 3 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newport Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6,548 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newport Beach, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newport Beach's boundary and the 15,230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Newport Beach's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newport Beach's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom California
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newport Beach's 15,230 acres read through the state summaryfrom California
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newport Beach's 15,230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newport Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,230 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Newport Beach-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaNewport Beach sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides