Piñon Hills, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Piñon Hills, 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 Piñon Hills 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 Piñon Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Piñon Hills — the short answer
Piñon Hills, California: USDA zone 8b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 Piñon Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Piñon Hills's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Piñon Hills
Each reading below is measured for Piñon Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPiñon Hills runs about 258 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPiñon Hills 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 Piñon Hills is in
Piñon Hills sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Piñon Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Bernardino County.
What Grows in Piñon Hills
Every plant below cleared Piñon Hills's own zone 8b and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Piñon Hills?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Piñon Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Piñon Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PHELAN PINON HILLS CSDPFAS · 0.7 mi
- GEARHEAD GARAGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SB COUNTY DPW/SWMD SHEEP CREEK (PHELAN) TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CR & R INC DBA PHELAN TRANSFERBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PHELAN RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CALTRANSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #16788Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- 004N007W16J001SNEUTRON TNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 004N007W16J006SLYS AT 58Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 004N007W16J011SLYS AT 15Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- PINON HILLS MARKETBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PINON HILLS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Piñon Hills'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 Piñon Hills.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Piñon Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Piñon Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Piñon Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Piñon Hills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Piñon Hills. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Piñon Hills
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 Piñon Hills average
Your land is one point inside Piñon Hills
Everything above resolves to Piñon Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Piñon Hills Average
Piñon Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Piñon Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Piñon Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Piñon Hills's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Piñon Hills's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Piñon Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Piñon Hills, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Piñon Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Piñon Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Piñon Hills average
How we know this about Piñon Hills
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 Piñon Hills’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 Piñon Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Piñon Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Piñon Hills typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Piñon Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Piñon Hills typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Piñon Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Piñon Hills sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 9, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Piñon Hills?
The federal record around Piñon Hills is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest PFAS record about 0.7 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 Piñon Hills?
From about Oct 24 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 Nov 23 (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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Piñon Hills's scale — its 8b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Piñon Hills'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 Piñon Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Piñon Hills's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,554 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Piñon Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Piñon Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 23 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Piñon Hills, the closest PFAS record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Piñon Hills's boundary and the 20,554 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Piñon Hills's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Piñon Hills's 20,554 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Bernardino 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 Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Piñon Hills's 20,554 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Piñon Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,554 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Piñon Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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