Stirling City, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Stirling City, 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 Stirling City 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 Stirling City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stirling City — the short answer
Stirling City, California: USDA zone 8b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 753 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 753 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 Stirling City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stirling City's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stirling City
Each reading below is measured for Stirling City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStirling City runs about 245 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
MeasuredStirling City 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 Stirling City is in
Stirling City sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Stirling City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butte County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Stirling City
Every plant below cleared Stirling City's own zone 8b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stirling City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Stirling City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stirling City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Reynolds No. 2 DepositMining · 2.3 mi
- 023N003E01K001MNitrate · 3.1 mi
- Silver MoonMining · 4.2 mi
- Wyoming MineMining · 4.4 mi
- CAL FIRE MAGALIA NURSERYBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- PG&E CAMP ONEBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- Anti-Axis ClaimMining · 4.6 mi
- Parkeson ClaimMining · 4.9 mi
- HILL'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- FORKS OF BUTTEBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- QC MOLDS INC DBA QUALITY CRAFT MOLDSBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- FASTRIP OIL COMPANY #904 CHUCK'S PLACEBrownfields · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stirling City'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 Stirling City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stirling City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stirling City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stirling City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stirling City — Mining (46 sites) and Brownfields (61 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Stirling City
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 Stirling City average
Your land is one point inside Stirling City
Everything above resolves to Stirling City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 753 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 Stirling City Average
Stirling City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Stirling City
- ●One soil character for all of Stirling City
- ●Frost dates read at Stirling City's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stirling City's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stirling City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stirling City, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stirling City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stirling City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stirling City average
How we know this about Stirling City
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 Stirling City’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 Stirling City
When does frost risk typically end in Stirling City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stirling City typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Stirling City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stirling City typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stirling City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stirling City sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 14, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stirling City?
The federal record around Stirling City shows 126 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (61), the nearest Mining record about 2.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Stirling City?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stirling City's scale — its 8b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stirling City'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 Stirling City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stirling City's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 753 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stirling City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stirling City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 28 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stirling City, the closest Mining record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stirling City's boundary and the 753 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stirling City sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stirling City's 753 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butte 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 Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stirling City's 753 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stirling City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 753 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 2.3 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 Stirling City-wide figureread your own land →
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