Old Station, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Old Station, 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 Old Station 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 Old Station — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Station — the short answer
Old Station, California: USDA zone 7a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7a is Old Station's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Station's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Station
Each reading below is measured for Old Station itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Station runs about 163 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOld Station sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Old Station is in
Old Station sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Old Station's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shasta County.
What Grows in Old Station
Every plant below cleared Old Station's own zone 7a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Station?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Old Station
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Station. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALTRANS D2 MAINTENANCE HAT CREEK MSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Old Station Fill-Up & Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
Measured from Old Station'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 Old Station.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Station
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Old Station
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 Old Station average
Your land is one point inside Old Station
Everything above resolves to Old Station as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Old Station Average
Old Station Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Old Station
- ●One soil character for all of Old Station
- ●Frost dates read at Old Station's scale: May 1 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Station's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Station
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Station, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Station averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Station — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Station average
How we know this about Old Station
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 Old Station’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 Old Station
When does frost risk typically end in Old Station?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Station typically lands around May 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 May 22.
When is the first frost in Old Station?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Station typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Station?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Station sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 27, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Station?
The federal record around Old Station is light — 2 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (1), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Old Station?
From about Sep 11 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 Oct 11 (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 Oct 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Old Station's scale — its 7a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Station'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 Old Station’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Old Station's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,421 acres it covers and 2 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Station's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Station's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 11 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Station, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Station's boundary and the 1,421 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Station's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Old Station's 1,421 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Old Station's 1,421 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Station you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,421 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Old Station-wide figureread your own land →
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