Stones Landing, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stones Landing, 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 Stones Landing 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 Stones Landing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stones Landing — the short answer
Stones Landing, California: USDA zone 6a, about 120 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~120
- 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 6a is Stones Landing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stones Landing's 120-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stones Landing
Each reading below is measured for Stones Landing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStones Landing runs about 120 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
MeasuredStones Landing 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 Stones Landing is in
Stones Landing sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Stones Landing's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lassen County.
What Grows in Stones Landing
Every plant below cleared Stones Landing's own zone 6a and its 120-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stones Landing?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — 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 Stones Landing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stones Landing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 033N011E15P001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- LASSEN REGIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITYBrownfields · 3.3 mi
Measured from Stones Landing'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 Stones Landing.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stones Landing
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 Stones Landing
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 Stones Landing average
Your land is one point inside Stones Landing
Everything above resolves to Stones Landing 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 Stones Landing Average
Stones Landing Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Stones Landing
- ●One soil character for all of Stones Landing
- ●Frost dates read at Stones Landing's scale: May 28 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stones Landing's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stones Landing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stones Landing, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stones Landing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stones Landing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stones Landing average
How we know this about Stones Landing
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 Stones Landing’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 Stones Landing
When does frost risk typically end in Stones Landing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stones Landing typically lands around May 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 Jun 18.
When is the first frost in Stones Landing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stones Landing typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 120 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stones Landing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stones Landing sees about 120 frost-free days — roughly May 28 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 18 to Sep 11, about 85 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stones Landing?
The federal record around Stones Landing is light — 3 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (2), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Stones Landing?
With about 120 frost-free days between hard freezes, Stones Landing 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 148 to 176 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 28 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Stones Landing's scale — its 6a band and its 120-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stones Landing'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 Stones Landing’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stones Landing's own scale — its own ~120-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,357 acres it covers and 3 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stones Landing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stones Landing's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 28 and Sep 25 and the ~120-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stones Landing, the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stones Landing's boundary and the 1,357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~120-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stones Landing'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 Stones Landing's 1,357 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 Stones Landing's 1,357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stones Landing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,357 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Stones Landing-wide figureread your own land →
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