Sisquoc, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sisquoc, 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 Sisquoc 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 Sisquoc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sisquoc — the short answer
Sisquoc, California: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 9b is Sisquoc's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sisquoc's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sisquoc
Each reading below is measured for Sisquoc itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSisquoc runs about 322 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSisquoc 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 Sisquoc is in
Sisquoc sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Sisquoc's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Sisquoc
Every plant below cleared Sisquoc's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sisquoc?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Sisquoc
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sisquoc. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LE BON CLIMAT VINEYARDBrownfields · 1000 ft
- 009N033W12R001SNitrate · 1600 ft
- HANSON AGGREGATES MID-PACIFIC INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- 009N032W07R001SNitrate · 0.8 mi
- SISQUOC SAND, ROCK AND GRAVEL PLANTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 009N032W17G001SNitrate · 1.5 mi
- 009N032W17F003SNitrate · 1.5 mi
- TEXACO-CAT CANYON-WILLIAMS FEEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CALPORTLAND COMPANY GAREY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- SHELL CAL PROD/CENTRAL COAST PROD UNITBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CAT CANYONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- SISQUOC PUMP STATIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sisquoc'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 Sisquoc.
Total Sites
759
within ~10 miles of Sisquoc
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sisquoc
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sisquoc
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sisquoc, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sisquoc — Nitrate (268 sites) and Brownfields (453 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Sisquoc
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 Sisquoc average
Your land is one point inside Sisquoc
Everything above resolves to Sisquoc as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sisquoc Average
Sisquoc Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sisquoc
- ●One soil character for all of Sisquoc
- ●Frost dates read at Sisquoc's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sisquoc's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sisquoc
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sisquoc, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sisquoc averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sisquoc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sisquoc average
How we know this about Sisquoc
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 Sisquoc’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 Sisquoc
When does frost risk typically end in Sisquoc?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sisquoc typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 16.
When is the first frost in Sisquoc?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sisquoc typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sisquoc?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sisquoc sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 30, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sisquoc?
The federal record around Sisquoc is a meaningful one — 759 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (453), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sisquoc?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sisquoc's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sisquoc'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 Sisquoc’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sisquoc's own scale — its own ~322-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,427 acres it covers and 759 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sisquoc's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sisquoc's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 26 and Dec 14 and the ~322-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 759 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sisquoc, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sisquoc's boundary and the 1,427 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sisquoc's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sisquoc's 1,427 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sisquoc's 1,427 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sisquoc you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,427 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 Sisquoc-wide figureread your own land →
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