Phoenix Lake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Phoenix Lake, 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 Phoenix Lake 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 Phoenix Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Phoenix Lake — the short answer
Phoenix Lake, California: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 8b is Phoenix Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Phoenix Lake's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Phoenix Lake
Each reading below is measured for Phoenix Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhoenix Lake runs about 264 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
MeasuredPhoenix Lake 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 Phoenix Lake is in
Phoenix Lake sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Phoenix Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tuolumne County.
What Grows in Phoenix Lake
Every plant below cleared Phoenix Lake's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Phoenix Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Phoenix Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Phoenix Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLGC PARTNERS/PHOENIX LAKE GOLF COURSEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CCSF PVC HETCH HETCHY WEPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BARRY DUGAN ELECTRIC INC DBA BARRY ELECTRICBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- DIESTEL TURKEY RANCHBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 410 AUTOMOTIVES LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- KENNEDY MEADOWS RESORT & PACK STATIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- GLENN H KOLPACKBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- KROGNESS MACHINEBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- WILDE WOOD CREATIVE PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- NIEVES ENTERPRISE INC DBA MIGUELS AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE #1337Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- AUTOMOTIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Phoenix Lake'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 Phoenix Lake.
Total Sites
349
within ~10 miles of Phoenix Lake
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Phoenix Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Phoenix Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Phoenix Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Phoenix Lake — Mining (67 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Phoenix Lake
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 Phoenix Lake average
Your land is one point inside Phoenix Lake
Everything above resolves to Phoenix Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Phoenix Lake Average
Phoenix Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Phoenix Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Phoenix Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Phoenix Lake's scale: Mar 12 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Phoenix Lake's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Phoenix Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Phoenix Lake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Phoenix Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Phoenix Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Phoenix Lake average
How we know this about Phoenix Lake
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 Phoenix Lake’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 Phoenix Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Phoenix Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Phoenix Lake typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Phoenix Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Phoenix Lake typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Phoenix Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Phoenix Lake sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 17, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Phoenix Lake?
The federal record around Phoenix Lake runs heavier than most — 349 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (236), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Phoenix Lake?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Phoenix Lake's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Phoenix Lake'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 Phoenix Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Phoenix Lake's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,087 acres it covers and 349 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Phoenix Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Phoenix Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Dec 1 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 349 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Phoenix Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Phoenix Lake's boundary and the 7,087 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Phoenix Lake's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Phoenix Lake's 7,087 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Phoenix Lake's 7,087 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Phoenix Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,087 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 Phoenix Lake-wide figureread your own land →