San Diego, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in San Diego, 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 Diego 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 Diego — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Diego — the short answer
San Diego, California: USDA zone 10b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 209K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- San Diego County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- San Diego County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- San Diego County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 209K 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 San Diego County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is San Diego's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Diego's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Diego
Each reading below is measured for San Diego itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSan Diego runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from San Diego County, the closest normal to San Diego) — 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
MeasuredSan Diego 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 Diego is in
San Diego sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at San Diego's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Diego County.
What Grows in San Diego
Plants matched to San Diego's USDA zones 10b, 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 San Diego?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around San Diego
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from San Diego, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near San Diego
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Diego. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NATIONAL AIR COLLEGE INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SDCTY FIRE-RESCUE AIR OPERATIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SDCTY-POLICE AIR SUPPORTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SORBI AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LEARN TO FLY SAN DIEGOBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GENERAL ATOMICS ASIBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MONTGOMERY FIELDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- N M S MANAGEMENT INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- COLCRIS PRODUCTIONS DBA CREATIVE COATINGSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTL CORPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SUPERSHUTTLEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- GIBBS FLYING SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Diego'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 Diego.
Total Sites
8,866
within ~10 miles of San Diego
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
32 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Diego
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Diego
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Diego, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 8,119 sites within ~10 miles of San Diego. 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 San Diego
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 Diego average
Your land is one point inside San Diego
Everything above resolves to San Diego as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 209K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Diego 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 San Diego Average
San Diego Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across San Diego
- ●One soil character for all of San Diego
- ●Frost dates read at San Diego's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Diego's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Diego
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Diego, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Diego averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Diego — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Diego average
How we know this about San Diego
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 San Diego 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 San Diego
When does frost risk typically end in San Diego?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Diego typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in San Diego?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Diego typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Diego?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Diego sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 27, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Diego?
The federal record around San Diego is a meaningful one — 8,866 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (8,119), 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 San Diego?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Diego's scale — its 10b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Diego'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 Diego’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at San Diego's own scale — the 208,698 acres it covers and 8,866 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Diego's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 8,866 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Diego, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Diego's boundary and the 208,698 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at San Diego's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of San Diegolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — San Diego has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Diego County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Diego's 208,698 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Diego 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 San Diego 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 Diego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Diego's 208,698 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Diego you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 208,698 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 San Diego-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaSan Diego sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides