Oak Hills, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor tomato, fig, california poppy, and grape, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oak Hills, 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 Oak Hills 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 Oak Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oak Hills — the short answer
Oak Hills, California: USDA zone 8b, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 16K 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 San Bernardino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Oak Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Hills's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Hills
Each reading below is measured for Oak Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOak Hills runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from San Bernardino County, the closest normal to Oak Hills) — 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
MeasuredOak Hills sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Oak Hills is in
Oak Hills sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Oak Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Bernardino County.
What Grows in Oak Hills
Plants matched to Oak Hills's USDA zones 8b, 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 Oak Hills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 18 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Oak Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SBNDO COUNTY SERVICE AREA 70JPFAS · 1200 ft
- RANCHERO ROAD INC DBA RANCHERO CHEVRONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Ranchero Road Inc. dba Ranchero ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COMMERCIAL ENGINE SERVICEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Miraposa Inc 76 StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MIRAPOSA INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 004N005W32H001SNitrate · 0.8 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #381Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HIGH DESERT UNDERGOUND INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #381Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- UNLIMITED PERFORMANCE PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- UNLIMITED PERFORMANCE PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Hills'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 Oak Hills.
Total Sites
1,006
within ~10 miles of Oak Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oak Hills — Brownfields (641 sites) and Nitrate (270 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Oak Hills
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 Oak Hills average
Your land is one point inside Oak Hills
Everything above resolves to Oak Hills as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Bernardino County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Oak Hills Average
Oak Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Oak Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Hills's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Hills's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Hills, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Hills average
How we know this about Oak Hills
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 San Bernardino 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 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 Oak Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Hills typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Oak Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Hills 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 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Hills sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Nov 28, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Hills?
The federal record around Oak Hills is a meaningful one — 1,006 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (641), the nearest PFAS 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 Oak Hills?
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 Oak Hills's scale — its 8b band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Hills'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 Oak Hills’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Oak Hills's own scale — the 15,690 acres it covers and 1,006 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,006 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Hills, the closest PFAS record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Hills's boundary and the 15,690 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Oak Hills's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oak Hills has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Bernardino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oak Hills's 15,690 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino 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 Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Hills's 15,690 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,690 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Oak Hills-wide figureread your own land →