North Fair Oaks, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Fair Oaks, 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 Fair Oaks 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 Fair Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Fair Oaks — the short answer
North Fair Oaks, California: USDA zone 10a, about 357 days between hard freezes, across 765 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~357
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 765 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is North Fair Oaks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Fair Oaks's 357-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Fair Oaks
Each reading below is measured for North Fair Oaks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Fair Oaks runs about 357 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredNorth Fair Oaks 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 Fair Oaks is in
North Fair Oaks sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at North Fair Oaks's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Mateo County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Fair Oaks
Every plant below cleared North Fair Oaks's own zone 10a and its 357-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Fair Oaks?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around North Fair Oaks
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from North Fair Oaks, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Fair Oaks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Fair Oaks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EVEREST HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 650 ft
- RIDGEWOOD WATER PURE CORPBrownfields · 650 ft
- TAUTONA GROUP RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 700 ft
- BEST MOWER SHOPBrownfields · 900 ft
- TYCO ELECTRONICS CORPBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TYCO ELECTRONICS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- MASTERSON TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TE CONNECTIVITY INCToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- L&M AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION SERVICEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BAYAREA MOTOR SPORTS 5650 LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MEINEKE CAR CARE CBrownfields · 1200 ft
- JOE'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Fair Oaks'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 Fair Oaks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Fair Oaks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Fair Oaks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Fair Oaks, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,003 sites within ~10 miles of North Fair Oaks. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fair Oaks
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 Fair Oaks average
Your land is one point inside North Fair Oaks
Everything above resolves to North Fair Oaks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 765 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 Fair Oaks Average
North Fair Oaks Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across North Fair Oaks
- ●One soil character for all of North Fair Oaks
- ●Frost dates read at North Fair Oaks's scale: Jan 2 to Dec 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Fair Oaks's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Fair Oaks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Fair Oaks, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Fair Oaks averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Fair Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Fair Oaks average
How we know this about North Fair Oaks
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 at North Fair Oaks’s own record; 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 Fair Oaks
When does frost risk typically end in North Fair Oaks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Fair Oaks typically lands around Jan 2, 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 Jan 23.
When is the first frost in North Fair Oaks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Fair Oaks typically arrives around Dec 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 11, so the watching starts about Nov 25 — about 357 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Fair Oaks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Fair Oaks sees about 357 frost-free days — roughly Jan 2 through Dec 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 23 to Dec 11, about 322 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Fair Oaks?
The federal record around North Fair Oaks runs heavier than most — 4,439 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,003), 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 North Fair Oaks?
From about Nov 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Fair Oaks's scale — its 10a band and its 357-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Fair Oaks'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 Fair Oaks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Fair Oaks's own scale — its own ~357-day season between 28°F freezes, the 765 acres it covers and 4,439 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Fair Oaks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Fair Oaks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 2 and Dec 25 and the ~357-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,439 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Fair Oaks, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Fair Oaks's boundary and the 765 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~357-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Fair Oaks sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Fair Oakslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Fair Oaks's 765 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 San Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Fair Oaks's 765 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Fair Oaks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 765 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 North Fair Oaks-wide figureread your own land →