Ojai, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Ojai, 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 Ojai 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 Ojai — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ojai — the short answer
Ojai, California: USDA zone 9b, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 9b is Ojai's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ojai's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ojai
Each reading below is measured for Ojai itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOjai runs about 317 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
MeasuredOjai sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Ojai is in
Ojai sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Ojai's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ventura County is mostly Southern California Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ojai
Every plant below cleared Ojai's own zone 9b and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ojai?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — 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 Ojai
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ojai. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LES HINKS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 650 ft
- AT&T California - KD103Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 750 ft
- DAVID A WATSON DDS A DENTAL CORPBrownfields · 750 ft
- OJAI VALLEY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- OJAI CHEVRON #90478Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OJAI CHEVRONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- OJAI CHEVRON #9-0478Brownfields · 1100 ft
- CALTRANSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- VC SHERIFFS DEPT (HMAP)Brownfields · 1700 ft
- RADDING HOWARD DRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CITY OF OJAIBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ojai'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 Ojai.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Ojai
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ojai
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ojai
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ojai, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 168 sites within ~10 miles of Ojai. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Ojai
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 Ojai average
Your land is one point inside Ojai
Everything above resolves to Ojai as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Ojai Average
Ojai Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Ojai
- ●One soil character for all of Ojai
- ●Frost dates read at Ojai's scale: Feb 2 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ojai's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ojai
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ojai, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ojai averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ojai — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ojai average
How we know this about Ojai
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ojai’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ojai
When does frost risk typically end in Ojai?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ojai typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 23.
When is the first frost in Ojai?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ojai typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ojai?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ojai sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Feb 2 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 23 to Dec 2, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ojai?
The federal record around Ojai is a meaningful one — 196 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (168), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Ojai?
From about Nov 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 Dec 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ojai's scale — its 9b band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ojai'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 Ojai’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ojai's own scale — its own ~317-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,788 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ojai's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ojai's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 2 and Dec 16 and the ~317-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ojai, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ojai's boundary and the 2,788 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ojai sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ojai's 2,788 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ventura County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ventura 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 Ventura County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ojai's 2,788 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ojai you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,788 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 Ojai-wide figureread your own land →