San Francisco, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in San Francisco, 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 Francisco 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 Francisco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
San Francisco — the short answer
San Francisco, California: USDA zone 10b, across 30K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Jan 19 - Mar 19
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Nov 29 - Dec 12
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 30K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 10b is San Francisco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Francisco
Each reading below is measured for San Francisco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSan Francisco 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
What Grows in San Francisco
Every plant below cleared San Francisco's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near San Francisco
We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.
Your land is one point inside San Francisco
Everything above resolves to San Francisco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 30K 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 Francisco Average
San Francisco Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across San Francisco
- ●One soil character for all of San Francisco
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Francisco's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Francisco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Francisco, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Francisco averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Francisco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Francisco average
How we know this about San Francisco
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 Francisco
When does frost risk typically end in San Francisco?
San Francisco has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows California's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Jan 19 - Mar 19 and their first fall hard freeze around Nov 29 - Dec 12, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Francisco?
No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around San Francisco. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.
How do I protect my plants from frost in San Francisco?
As the season closes around California's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Nov 29 - Dec 12 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Francisco's scale — its 10b band and its zone 10b. Your yard writes its own version of San Francisco'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 Francisco’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at San Francisco's own scale — the 29,878 acres it covers; 3 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Francisco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- San Francisco's boundary and the 29,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear San Francisco's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom California
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Francisco's 29,878 acres read through the state summaryfrom California
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Francisco's 29,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Francisco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 29,878 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly →
- 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 Francisco-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaSan Francisco sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides