San Clemente, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in San Clemente, 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 San Clemente 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 San Clemente — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
San Clemente — the short answer
San Clemente, California: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 12K 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 10b is San Clemente's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Clemente'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 San Clemente
Each reading below is measured for San Clemente itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSan Clemente sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 San Clemente is in
San Clemente sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at San Clemente's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in San Clemente
Every plant below cleared San Clemente's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near San Clemente
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Clemente. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K STORE #2709479Brownfields · 1600 ft
- EXXONMOBIL OIL CORP 18821Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Circle K Stores Inc. Site #2709479Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LOWE'S OF SAN CLEMENTE #1050Brownfields · 1700 ft
- ADVANCED SURGICAL INERVENTIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NAME GAME THEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ALBERTSONS 2509Brownfields · 2100 ft
- STYLE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MICHAELS STORES INC #2711Brownfields · 2300 ft
- FULL TILT OFF ROAD EQUIPTMENTBrownfields · 2500 ft
- WALMART #2527Brownfields · 2500 ft
- SOLIS FACILITY SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Clemente'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 San Clemente.
Total Sites
1,270
within ~10 miles of San Clemente
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Clemente
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Clemente
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Clemente, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,108 sites within ~10 miles of San Clemente. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 San Clemente
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 San Clemente average
Your land is one point inside San Clemente
Everything above resolves to San Clemente as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 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 San Clemente Average
San Clemente Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across San Clemente
- ●One soil character for all of San Clemente
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Clemente's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Clemente
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Clemente, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Clemente averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Clemente — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Clemente average
How we know this about San Clemente
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, 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 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 San Clemente
Is it too late to plant in San Clemente?
No — San Clemente 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 San Clemente?
It doesn't — San Clemente 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 San Clemente?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for San Clemente 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 San Clemente?
The federal record around San Clemente is a meaningful one — 1,270 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,108), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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.
Everything above is measured at San Clemente's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of San Clemente'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 San Clemente’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at San Clemente's own scale — the 11,748 acres it covers and 1,270 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Clemente's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering San Clemente — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,270 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Clemente, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Clemente's boundary and the 11,748 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear San Clemente's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at San Clemente's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Clemente's 11,748 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Clemente's 11,748 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Clemente you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,748 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 San Clemente-wide figureread your own land →