Spaulding, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spaulding, 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 Spaulding 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 Spaulding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spaulding — the short answer
Spaulding, California: USDA zone 6a, about 122 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~122
- 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 6a is Spaulding's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spaulding's 122-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spaulding
Each reading below is measured for Spaulding itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpaulding runs about 122 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSpaulding sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Spaulding is in
Spaulding sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Spaulding's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lassen County.
What Grows in Spaulding
Every plant below cleared Spaulding's own zone 6a and its 122-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spaulding?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Spaulding
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spaulding. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LASSEN REGIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 033N011E15P001MNitrate · 5.5 mi
Measured from Spaulding'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 Spaulding.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spaulding
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Spaulding
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 Spaulding average
Your land is one point inside Spaulding
Everything above resolves to Spaulding 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 Spaulding Average
Spaulding Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Spaulding
- ●One soil character for all of Spaulding
- ●Frost dates read at Spaulding's scale: May 23 to Sep 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spaulding's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spaulding
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spaulding, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spaulding averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spaulding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spaulding average
How we know this about Spaulding
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 Spaulding’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 Spaulding
When does frost risk typically end in Spaulding?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spaulding typically lands around May 23, 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 Jun 13.
When is the first frost in Spaulding?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spaulding typically arrives around Sep 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 8, so the watching starts about Aug 23 — about 122 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spaulding?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spaulding sees about 122 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Sep 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Sep 8, about 87 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spaulding?
The federal record around Spaulding is light — 3 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (2), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Spaulding?
With about 122 frost-free days between hard freezes, Spaulding rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 150 to 178 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Spaulding's scale — its 6a band and its 122-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spaulding'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 Spaulding’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spaulding's own scale — its own ~122-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,131 acres it covers and 3 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spaulding's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spaulding's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Sep 22 and the ~122-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spaulding, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spaulding's boundary and the 2,131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~122-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spaulding's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spaulding's 2,131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lassen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lassen 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 Lassen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spaulding's 2,131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spaulding you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,131 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 Spaulding-wide figureread your own land →
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