Pescadero, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pescadero, 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 Pescadero 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 Pescadero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pescadero — the short answer
Pescadero, California: USDA zone 9b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Pescadero's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pescadero's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pescadero
Each reading below is measured for Pescadero itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPescadero 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 Pescadero is in
Pescadero sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Pescadero's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Mateo County.
What Grows in Pescadero
Every plant below cleared Pescadero's own zone 9b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Pescadero
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pescadero. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RNR HERBSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Pescadero AllianceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SARABIA'S AUTO REPAIR & TOWINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- OKU INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PESCADERO TERRA GARDEN INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BIANCHI FLOWERS, INC.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS - PESCADERO SHOPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WESTLAND NURSERY INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- TOMKAT RANCH LLCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- COUNTY OF SAN MATEO-PESCADERO CORP YARDBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- PESCADERO CORP YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pescadero'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 Pescadero.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pescadero
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pescadero
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pescadero, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Pescadero. 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 Pescadero
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 Pescadero average
Your land is one point inside Pescadero
Everything above resolves to Pescadero 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 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 Pescadero Average
Pescadero Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Pescadero
- ●One soil character for all of Pescadero
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pescadero's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pescadero
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pescadero, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pescadero averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pescadero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pescadero average
How we know this about Pescadero
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Pescadero
Is it too late to plant in Pescadero?
No — Pescadero has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Pescadero?
It doesn't — Pescadero records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Pescadero?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Pescadero contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pescadero?
The federal record around Pescadero shows 54 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (40), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Pescadero's scale — its 9b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Pescadero'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 Pescadero’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pescadero's own scale — the 2,577 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pescadero's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Pescadero — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pescadero, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pescadero's boundary and the 2,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Pescadero's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pescadero's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pescadero's 2,577 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pescadero's 2,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pescadero you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,577 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Pescadero-wide figureread your own land →