Oak Shores, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oak Shores, 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 Shores 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 Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oak Shores — the short answer
Oak Shores, California: USDA zone 8b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- San Luis Obispo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- San Luis Obispo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- San Luis Obispo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Luis Obispo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Oak Shores's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Shores's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Shores
Each reading below is measured for Oak Shores itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOak Shores runs about 228 days between hard freezes (read from San Luis Obispo County, the closest normal to Oak Shores) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOak Shores 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 Shores is in
Oak Shores sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Oak Shores's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Luis Obispo County.
What Grows in Oak Shores
Every plant below cleared Oak Shores's own zone 8b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak Shores?
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 Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Oak Shores
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Shores. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OAK SHORES COMMUNITY HOABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NACIMIENTO WATER COMPANYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO DBA AT&T CALIFBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- AT&T California - SE191Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MOCO FLEET LAKE SAN ANTONIO SO SHOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- COUNTY OF MONTEREY FLEET MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- BATRUMS INCBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- LAKE SAN ANTIONIO SOUTH SHORE RESORTBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- COUNTY OF MONTEREYBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- COUNTY OF MONTEREY-LAKE NACIMIENTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- NWP JAMES W FOWLER COBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Shores'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 Shores.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Shores
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Shores
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Shores, Mining runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Oak Shores. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Oak Shores
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 Shores average
Your land is one point inside Oak Shores
Everything above resolves to Oak Shores as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Luis Obispo 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 Shores Average
Oak Shores Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Oak Shores
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Shores
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Shores's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Shores's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Shores
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Shores, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Shores averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Shores average
How we know this about Oak Shores
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 Luis Obispo 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 Shores
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Shores?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Shores typically lands around Apr 1, 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 Apr 22.
When is the first frost in Oak Shores?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Shores typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Shores?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Shores sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 1, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Shores?
The federal record around Oak Shores runs heavier than most — 60 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (30), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Oak Shores?
From about Oct 16 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 Nov 15 (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 Nov 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oak Shores's scale — its 8b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Shores'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 Shores’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Oak Shores's own scale — the 3,256 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Shores's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Shores, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Shores's boundary and the 3,256 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oak Shores's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oak Shores has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Luis Obispo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oak Shores's 3,256 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Luis Obispo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Luis Obispo 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 Luis Obispo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Shores's 3,256 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Shores you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,256 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Shores-wide figureread your own land →