San Leandro, 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 San Leandro, 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 Leandro 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 Leandro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Leandro — the short answer
San Leandro, California: USDA zone 10a, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 12
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- Alameda County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Alameda County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is San Leandro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Leandro's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Leandro
Each reading below is measured for San Leandro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSan Leandro runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Alameda County, the closest normal to San Leandro) — 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 Leandro 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 San Leandro is in
San Leandro sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at San Leandro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alameda County.
What Grows in San Leandro
Plants matched to San Leandro'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 San Leandro?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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.
Documented around San Leandro
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from San Leandro, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near San Leandro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Leandro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADVANCED TECH COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 250 ft
- SAAGS PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 400 ft
- SILMAN CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 400 ft
- RELIABLE POWDER COATINGS LLCBrownfields · 500 ft
- SERVICE PRINTING COMPANYBrownfields · 600 ft
- ROLLER PRESS INCBrownfields · 600 ft
- LINCOLN PROPERTIESBrownfields · 600 ft
- CENTER FOR ELDERS INDEPENDENCE SAN LEANDRO CENTERBrownfields · 750 ft
- PRIME NOW LLC - USF2Brownfields · 850 ft
- PROLOGIS USLV NEWCA 7, LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- THE SIMMONS MANUFACTURING COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BIMBO BAKERIES USA INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Leandro'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 Leandro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Leandro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Leandro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Leandro, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,940 sites within ~10 miles of San Leandro. 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 Leandro
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 Leandro average
Your land is one point inside San Leandro
Everything above resolves to San Leandro as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Alameda 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 Leandro Average
San Leandro Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across San Leandro
- ●One soil character for all of San Leandro
- ●Frost dates read at San Leandro's scale: Jan 12 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Leandro's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Leandro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Leandro, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Leandro averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Leandro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Leandro average
How we know this about San Leandro
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 Alameda 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 Leandro
When does frost risk typically end in San Leandro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Leandro typically lands around Jan 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in San Leandro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Leandro typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Leandro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Leandro sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 12 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 2 to Nov 28, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Leandro?
The federal record around San Leandro is a meaningful one — 5,529 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,940), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Leandro?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Leandro's scale — its 10a band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Leandro'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 Leandro’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at San Leandro's own scale — the 8,527 acres it covers and 5,529 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Leandro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 5,529 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Leandro, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Leandro's boundary and the 8,527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at San Leandro's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of San Leandrolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — San Leandro has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Alameda County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Leandro's 8,527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alameda 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 Alameda 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 Alameda County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Leandro's 8,527 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Leandro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,527 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 San Leandro-wide figureread your own land →