Sierra Village, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sierra Village, 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 Sierra Village 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 Sierra Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sierra Village — the short answer
Sierra Village, California: USDA zone 8b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Sierra Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sierra Village's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sierra Village
Each reading below is measured for Sierra Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSierra Village runs about 231 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSierra Village 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 Sierra Village is in
Sierra Village sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Sierra Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tuolumne County.
What Grows in Sierra Village
Every plant below cleared Sierra Village's own zone 8b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sierra Village?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Sierra Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sierra Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Sierra Village ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AUTO DISCOUNT REPAIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Sonnys Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- USDA USFS R05 K RD (STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST)Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- GemMining · 1.7 mi
- DONNA CLAIRE MANFRE TRUSTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 003N016E26E001MNitrate · 2.0 mi
- Zak's Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CAL TRANSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- 002N016E10K001MNitrate · 3.3 mi
- Lucky Strike ClaimMining · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sierra Village'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 Sierra Village.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Sierra Village
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sierra Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sierra Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sierra Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sierra Village — Mining (30 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Sierra Village
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 Sierra Village average
Your land is one point inside Sierra Village
Everything above resolves to Sierra Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sierra Village Average
Sierra Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sierra Village
- ●One soil character for all of Sierra Village
- ●Frost dates read at Sierra Village's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sierra Village's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sierra Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sierra Village, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sierra Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sierra Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sierra Village average
How we know this about Sierra Village
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 Sierra Village’s own record; 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 Sierra Village
When does frost risk typically end in Sierra Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sierra Village typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Sierra Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sierra Village typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sierra Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sierra Village sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Nov 9, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sierra Village?
The federal record around Sierra Village runs heavier than most — 101 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (54), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sierra Village?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sierra Village's scale — its 8b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sierra Village'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 Sierra Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sierra Village's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,646 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sierra Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sierra Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 23 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sierra Village, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sierra Village's boundary and the 1,646 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sierra Village's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sierra Village's 1,646 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sierra Village's 1,646 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sierra Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,646 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Sierra Village-wide figureread your own land →