Santa Rosa Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Santa Rosa Valley, 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 Santa Rosa Valley 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 Santa Rosa Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Santa Rosa Valley — the short answer
Santa Rosa Valley, California: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 5K 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 10a is Santa Rosa Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Santa Rosa Valley'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 Santa Rosa Valley
Each reading below is measured for Santa Rosa Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSanta Rosa Valley 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 Santa Rosa Valley is in
Santa Rosa Valley sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Santa Rosa Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ventura County is mostly Southern California Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Santa Rosa Valley
Every plant below cleared Santa Rosa Valley's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Santa Rosa Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARPER, SCOTTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MARK STEINERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SUNNYLAND NURSERY LLCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DAVID TURLEYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- COUNTY OF VENTURA, CEO RISK HMAPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- NANCY SUMERSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- KEYME INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- TOM ENGBROCKBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- VONS 1735Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- HYPER-TECHBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- CLINICAS DEL CAMINO REAL INC MOORPARKBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- MOORPARK UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Santa Rosa Valley'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 Santa Rosa Valley.
Total Sites
2,281
within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Santa Rosa Valley, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,004 sites within ~10 miles of Santa Rosa Valley. 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 Santa Rosa Valley
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 Santa Rosa Valley average
Your land is one point inside Santa Rosa Valley
Everything above resolves to Santa Rosa Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 town 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 Santa Rosa Valley Average
Santa Rosa Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Santa Rosa Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Santa Rosa Valley
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Santa Rosa Valley's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Santa Rosa Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Santa Rosa Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Santa Rosa Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Santa Rosa Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Santa Rosa Valley average
How we know this about Santa Rosa Valley
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Santa Rosa Valley
Is it too late to plant in Santa Rosa Valley?
No — Santa Rosa Valley 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 Santa Rosa Valley?
It doesn't — Santa Rosa Valley 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 Santa Rosa Valley?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Santa Rosa Valley 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 Santa Rosa Valley?
The federal record around Santa Rosa Valley is a meaningful one — 2,281 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,004), 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.
Everything above is measured at Santa Rosa Valley's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Santa Rosa Valley'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 Santa Rosa Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Santa Rosa Valley's own scale — the 4,617 acres it covers and 2,281 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Santa Rosa Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Santa Rosa Valley — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 2,281 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Santa Rosa Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Santa Rosa Valley's boundary and the 4,617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Santa Rosa Valley's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Santa Rosa Valley sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Santa Rosa Valley's 4,617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ventura County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ventura 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 Ventura County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Santa Rosa Valley's 4,617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Santa Rosa Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,617 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 Santa Rosa Valley-wide figureread your own land →