Placerville, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Placerville, 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 Placerville 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 Placerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Placerville — the short answer
Placerville, California: USDA zone 9b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 El Dorado County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Placerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Placerville's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Placerville
Each reading below is measured for Placerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPlacerville runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from El Dorado County, the closest normal to Placerville) — 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
MeasuredPlacerville 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 Placerville is in
Placerville sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Placerville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: El Dorado County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Placerville
Plants matched to Placerville's USDA zones 9b, 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 Placerville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Placerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Placerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 400 ft
- AT&T California - TB062Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- JIM BAEHNEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- GUGALE AZOZU DENTAL GROUP OF PLACERVILLE INC DBA PLACERVILLE DENTAL CAREBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TOY AUTO INC.Brownfields · 1100 ft
- TURE D ROSLUND DDSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ELDOB ENTERPRISES LLC DBA SIERRA NEVADA TIRE & WHEELBrownfields · 1300 ft
- THOMPSONS TOYOTABrownfields · 1400 ft
- EL DORADO COUNTY HEALTH DEPT.Brownfields · 1400 ft
- RANDOLPH JEWELERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- EARL WARDEN AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Pacific QuartzMining · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Placerville'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 Placerville.
Total Sites
481
within ~10 miles of Placerville
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Placerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Placerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Placerville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Placerville — Mining (76 sites) and Brownfields (336 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Placerville
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 Placerville average
Your land is one point inside Placerville
Everything above resolves to Placerville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from El Dorado 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 Placerville Average
Placerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Placerville
- ●One soil character for all of Placerville
- ●Frost dates read at Placerville's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Placerville's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Placerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Placerville, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Placerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Placerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Placerville average
How we know this about Placerville
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 El Dorado 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 Placerville
When does frost risk typically end in Placerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Placerville typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Placerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Placerville typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Placerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Placerville sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 15, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Placerville?
The federal record around Placerville runs heavier than most — 481 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (336), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Placerville?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Placerville's scale — its 9b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Placerville'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 Placerville’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Placerville's own scale — the 3,738 acres it covers and 481 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Placerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 481 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Placerville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Placerville's boundary and the 3,738 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Placerville sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Placerville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom El Dorado County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Placerville's 3,738 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Dorado 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 El Dorado 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 El Dorado County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Placerville's 3,738 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Placerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,738 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Placerville-wide figureread your own land →