Smartsville, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Smartsville, 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 Smartsville 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 Smartsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smartsville — the short answer
Smartsville, California: USDA zone 9b, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 459 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- Yuba County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Yuba County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- Yuba County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 459 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 Yuba County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Smartsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smartsville's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smartsville
Each reading below is measured for Smartsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSmartsville runs about 331 days between hard freezes (read from Yuba County, the closest normal to Smartsville) — 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
MeasuredSmartsville 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 Smartsville is in
Smartsville sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Smartsville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yuba County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Smartsville
Every plant below cleared Smartsville's own zone 9b and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smartsville?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Smartsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smartsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Dempsy RanchMining · 1.5 mi
- 016N006E35G001MNitrate · 1.6 mi
- Western WorldMining · 1.6 mi
- SMITH RANCHESBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Dempsey RanchMining · 1.7 mi
- Paul CopperMining · 2.4 mi
- NARROWS 1 POWERHOUSE YUBA COUNTY WATER AGENCYBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Unnamed PropertyMining · 2.7 mi
- ENGLEBRIGHT DAM AND LAKEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- NORDIC INDUSTRIES PARKS BAR QUARRYBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- California MineMining · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smartsville'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 Smartsville.
Total Sites
164
within ~10 miles of Smartsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smartsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smartsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smartsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smartsville — Mining (50 sites) and PFAS (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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Smartsville
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 Smartsville average
Your land is one point inside Smartsville
Everything above resolves to Smartsville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 459 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yuba 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 Smartsville Average
Smartsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Smartsville
- ●One soil character for all of Smartsville
- ●Frost dates read at Smartsville's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smartsville's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smartsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smartsville, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smartsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smartsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smartsville average
How we know this about Smartsville
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 Yuba 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 Smartsville
When does frost risk typically end in Smartsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smartsville typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Smartsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smartsville typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smartsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smartsville sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Nov 28, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smartsville?
The federal record around Smartsville is a meaningful one — 164 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (51), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Smartsville?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smartsville's scale — its 9b band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smartsville'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 Smartsville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Smartsville's own scale — the 459 acres it covers and 164 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smartsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smartsville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smartsville's boundary and the 459 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Smartsville 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 — Smartsville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yuba County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smartsville's 459 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yuba County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yuba 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 Yuba County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smartsville's 459 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smartsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 459 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Smartsville-wide figureread your own land →
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