Shoshone, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Shoshone, 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 Shoshone 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 Shoshone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shoshone — the short answer
Shoshone, California: USDA zone 8b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- Inyo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Inyo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- Inyo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 Inyo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Shoshone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shoshone's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shoshone
Each reading below is measured for Shoshone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsShoshone runs about 237 days between hard freezes (read from Inyo County, the closest normal to Shoshone) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredShoshone sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Shoshone is in
Shoshone sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Shoshone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Inyo County.
What Grows in Shoshone
Every plant below cleared Shoshone's own zone 8b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shoshone?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Shoshone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shoshone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INYO COUNTY ROAD DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- SHOSHONE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CALTRANSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Paddy's PrideMining · 5.6 mi
- Paddy PrideMining · 5.8 mi
- Red WingMining · 5.9 mi
- CollinaMining · 6.2 mi
- BaxterMining · 7.2 mi
- High ChicagoMining · 7.2 mi
- KunzeMining · 7.3 mi
- GladstoneMining · 8.2 mi
- Salsberry ProspectMining · 8.7 mi
- Black Raven ProspectMining · 9.0 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shoshone'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 Shoshone.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shoshone
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Shoshone
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 Shoshone average
Your land is one point inside Shoshone
Everything above resolves to Shoshone as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 18K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Inyo County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Shoshone Average
Shoshone Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Shoshone
- ●One soil character for all of Shoshone
- ●Frost dates read at Shoshone's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shoshone's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shoshone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shoshone, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shoshone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shoshone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shoshone average
How we know this about Shoshone
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 at Inyo 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 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 Shoshone
When does frost risk typically end in Shoshone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shoshone typically lands around Mar 26, 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 Apr 16.
When is the first frost in Shoshone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shoshone typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shoshone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shoshone sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 4, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shoshone?
The federal record around Shoshone is a meaningful one — 18 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (14), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.2 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 Shoshone?
From about Oct 19 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 Nov 18 (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 Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shoshone's scale — its 8b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shoshone'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 Shoshone’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Shoshone's own scale — the 18,375 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shoshone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shoshone, the closest Brownfields record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shoshone's boundary and the 18,375 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shoshone's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Shoshone has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Inyo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shoshone's 18,375 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Inyo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Inyo 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 Inyo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shoshone's 18,375 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shoshone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,375 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.2 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 Shoshone-wide figureread your own land →
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