Pacific Grove, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pacific Grove, 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 Pacific Grove 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 Pacific Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pacific Grove — the short answer
Pacific Grove, California: USDA zone 10a, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Monterey County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Monterey County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Monterey County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Monterey County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Pacific Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pacific Grove's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pacific Grove
Each reading below is measured for Pacific Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPacific Grove runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Monterey County, the closest normal to Pacific Grove) — 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
MeasuredPacific Grove sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Pacific Grove is in
Pacific Grove sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Pacific Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monterey County.
What Grows in Pacific Grove
Plants matched to Pacific Grove's USDA zones 10a, 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 Pacific Grove?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Pacific Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pacific Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOAN SAVAGEBrownfields · 650 ft
- 410 WALNUT STREETBrownfields · 800 ft
- DR STEVEN MACDONALDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PACIFIC GROVE SHELLBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Peninsula Petroleum Pacific Grove ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RETAIL SHELL SVC STATIONBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TANJA KUJACBrownfields · 2400 ft
- GARY WHITEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY ESFBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HOPKINS MARINE STATION- STANFORD UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CYRPESS CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ASILOMAR CONFERENCE CENTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pacific Grove'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 Pacific Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pacific Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pacific Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pacific Grove, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 662 sites within ~10 miles of Pacific Grove. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Pacific Grove
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 Pacific Grove average
Your land is one point inside Pacific Grove
Everything above resolves to Pacific Grove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Monterey County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Pacific Grove Average
Pacific Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Pacific Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Pacific Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Pacific Grove's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pacific Grove's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pacific Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pacific Grove, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pacific Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pacific Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pacific Grove average
How we know this about Pacific Grove
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 Monterey 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 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 Pacific Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Pacific Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific Grove typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Pacific Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific Grove typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pacific Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pacific Grove sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 26, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pacific Grove?
The federal record around Pacific Grove is a meaningful one — 775 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (662), 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 Pacific Grove?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pacific Grove's scale — its 10a band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pacific Grove'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 Pacific Grove’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Pacific Grove's own scale — the 1,834 acres it covers and 775 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pacific Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 775 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pacific Grove, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pacific Grove's boundary and the 1,834 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Pacific Grove'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 — Pacific Grove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Monterey County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pacific Grove's 1,834 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monterey 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 Monterey 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 Monterey County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pacific Grove's 1,834 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pacific Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,834 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 Pacific Grove-wide figureread your own land →