Point Arena, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Point Arena, 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 Point Arena 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 Point Arena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Point Arena — the short answer
Point Arena, California: USDA zone 10a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 874 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 874 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 Mendocino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Point Arena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Point Arena's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Point Arena
Each reading below is measured for Point Arena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPoint Arena runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Mendocino County, the closest normal to Point Arena) — 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
MeasuredPoint Arena 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 Point Arena is in
Point Arena sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Point Arena's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mendocino County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Point Arena
Plants matched to Point Arena'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 Point Arena?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Point Arena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Point Arena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FTM DIESEL AND OFF ROADBrownfields · 1200 ft
- OHAIR REDWOOD OIL COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- POINT ARENA SCHOOL DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL & BUS BARNBrownfields · 1400 ft
- L & B AVALOS AUTO SHOPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PACIFIC BELL C/O ALLEN TD081Brownfields · 1400 ft
- Point Arena GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- POINT ARENA AIR FORCE STATIONSuperfund · 1600 ft
- 012N017W12L001MNitrate · 2000 ft
- CITY OF POINT ARENABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MENDOCINO SOLID WASTE MGMNT AUTHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PG&E POINT ARENA SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- 012N016W31M001MNitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Point Arena'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 Point Arena.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of Point Arena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Point Arena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Point Arena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Point Arena, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Point Arena. 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 Point Arena
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 Point Arena average
Your land is one point inside Point Arena
Everything above resolves to Point Arena as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 874 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mendocino 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 Point Arena Average
Point Arena Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Point Arena
- ●One soil character for all of Point Arena
- ●Frost dates read at Point Arena's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Point Arena's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Point Arena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Point Arena, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Point Arena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Point Arena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Point Arena average
How we know this about Point Arena
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 Mendocino 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 Point Arena
When does frost risk typically end in Point Arena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Point Arena typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Point Arena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Point Arena typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Point Arena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Point Arena sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Point Arena?
The federal record around Point Arena is a meaningful one — 30 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (21), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Point Arena?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Point Arena's scale — its 10a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Point Arena'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 Point Arena’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Point Arena's own scale — the 874 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Point Arena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Point Arena, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Point Arena's boundary and the 874 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Point Arena sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Point Arena has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mendocino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Point Arena's 874 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mendocino 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 Mendocino 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 Mendocino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Point Arena's 874 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Point Arena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 874 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 Point Arena-wide figureread your own land →