North Fork, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Fork, 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 Fork 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 Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Fork — the short answer
North Fork, California: USDA zone 9a, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 9a is North Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Fork's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Fork
Each reading below is measured for North Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Fork runs about 286 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 Fork 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 North Fork is in
North Fork sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at North Fork's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madera County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Fork
Every plant below cleared North Fork's own zone 9a and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Fork?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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.
What's on the federal record near North Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GAS N STUFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 008S022E24A001MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 008S023E19D001MNitrate · 1.0 mi
- CHAWANAKEE UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST BUS BARNBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CHAWANAKEE UNIFIED SCH DIST NORTH FORKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SIERRA AUTOBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- HANK'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- NORTH FORK MILLBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 008S023E20F001MNitrate · 2.3 mi
- NORTH FORK RANCHERIA AUTOMOTIVE TRAINING FACILITYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- PG&E SAN JOAQUIN 2 HYDRO PLANTBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- PG&E AG WISHON HYDRO PLANTBrownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Fork'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 Fork.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Fork, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Fork — Nitrate (32 sites) and Brownfields (49 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in North Fork
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 Fork average
Your land is one point inside North Fork
Everything above resolves to North Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Fork Average
North Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across North Fork
- ●One soil character for all of North Fork
- ●Frost dates read at North Fork's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Fork's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Fork, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Fork average
How we know this about North Fork
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 Fork’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 Fork
When does frost risk typically end in North Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Fork typically lands around Feb 23, 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 Mar 16.
When is the first frost in North Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Fork typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Fork sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 22, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Fork?
The federal record around North Fork is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 North Fork?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Fork's scale — its 9a band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Fork'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 Fork’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Fork's own scale — its own ~286-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,631 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 23 and Dec 6 and the ~286-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Fork, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Fork's boundary and the 20,631 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Fork sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Fork's 20,631 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madera 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 Madera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Fork's 20,631 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,631 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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