North El Monte, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in North El Monte, 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 North El Monte 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 North El Monte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North El Monte — the short answer
North El Monte, California: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 272 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 272 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is North El Monte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North El Monte's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North El Monte
Each reading below is measured for North El Monte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNorth El Monte 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 North El Monte is in
North El Monte sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at North El Monte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Los Angeles County.
What Grows in North El Monte
Every plant below cleared North El Monte's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near North El Monte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North El Monte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOPHIA VANWIJKBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ALBERTSONS 561Brownfields · 1700 ft
- DOWTY MARTIME SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- TONYS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- THRIFTY CLEANBrownfields · 2000 ft
- AUTRONICS CORPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- GOLDENSTATE ENVRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SIIMPEL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- JOHN WILSONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SAVERS STORE 1212Brownfields · 2500 ft
- CHEVRON STATION NO 93583Brownfields · 2600 ft
- T & M AUTO REPAIR CORPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North El Monte'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 North El Monte.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North El Monte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North El Monte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North El Monte, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 8,248 sites within ~10 miles of North El Monte. 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 North El Monte
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 North El Monte average
Your land is one point inside North El Monte
Everything above resolves to North El Monte as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 272 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 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 North El Monte Average
North El Monte Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across North El Monte
- ●One soil character for all of North El Monte
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North El Monte's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North El Monte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North El Monte, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North El Monte averages can't show:
We read public map data around North El Monte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North El Monte average
How we know this about North El Monte
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, 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 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 North El Monte
Is it too late to plant in North El Monte?
No — North El Monte has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in North El Monte?
It doesn't — North El Monte records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in North El Monte?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for North El Monte contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North El Monte?
The federal record around North El Monte runs heavier than most — 9,393 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (8,248), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at North El Monte's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of North El Monte'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 North El Monte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North El Monte's own scale — the 272 acres it covers and 9,393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North El Monte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering North El Monte — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 9,393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North El Monte, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North El Monte's boundary and the 272 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear North El Monte's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North El Monte's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North El Monte's 272 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Los Angeles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North El Monte's 272 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North El Monte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 272 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 North El Monte-wide figureread your own land →