Shasta Lake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shasta Lake, 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 Shasta Lake 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 Shasta Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shasta Lake — the short answer
Shasta Lake, California: USDA zone 9b, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Shasta County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Shasta Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shasta Lake's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shasta Lake
Each reading below is measured for Shasta Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsShasta Lake runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Shasta County, the closest normal to Shasta Lake) — 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
MeasuredShasta Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Shasta Lake is in
Shasta Lake sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Shasta Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shasta County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Shasta Lake
Plants matched to Shasta Lake's USDA zones 9b, 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 Shasta Lake?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Shasta Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shasta Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIERRA PACIFIC INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 400 ft
- SIERRA PACIFIC INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 400 ft
- VALLEY PLATING COMPANYBrownfields · 750 ft
- FEDBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CENTRAL VALLEY CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RON YOUNG & SON AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR TREE #05771Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF SHASTA LAKEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Shasta KennettMining · 0.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NAPA AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BUREAU OF RELAMATION, SHASTA POWERHOUSEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shasta Lake'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 Shasta Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shasta Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shasta Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shasta Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shasta Lake — Mining (177 sites) and Brownfields (656 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Shasta Lake
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 Shasta Lake average
Your land is one point inside Shasta Lake
Everything above resolves to Shasta Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Shasta 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 Shasta Lake Average
Shasta Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Shasta Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Shasta Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Shasta Lake's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shasta Lake's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shasta Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shasta Lake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shasta Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shasta Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shasta Lake average
How we know this about Shasta Lake
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 Shasta 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 Shasta Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Shasta Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shasta Lake typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 5.
When is the first frost in Shasta Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shasta Lake typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shasta Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shasta Lake sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 25, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shasta Lake?
The federal record around Shasta Lake is a meaningful one — 970 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (656), 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 Shasta Lake?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shasta Lake's scale — its 9b band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shasta Lake'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 Shasta Lake’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Shasta Lake's own scale — the 6,975 acres it covers and 970 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shasta Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 970 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shasta Lake, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shasta Lake's boundary and the 6,975 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Shasta Lake sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Shasta Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Shasta County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shasta Lake's 6,975 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta 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 Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shasta Lake's 6,975 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shasta Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,975 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 Shasta Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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