Strawberry, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Strawberry, 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 Strawberry 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 Strawberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Strawberry — the short answer
Strawberry, California: USDA zone 10a, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 851 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 9
- Marin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Marin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- Marin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 851 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 Marin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Strawberry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strawberry's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strawberry
Each reading below is measured for Strawberry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsStrawberry runs about 336 days between hard freezes (read from Marin County, the closest normal to Strawberry) — 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
MeasuredStrawberry sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Strawberry is in
Strawberry sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Strawberry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marin County.
What Grows in Strawberry
Every plant below cleared Strawberry's own zone 10a and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strawberry?
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 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Strawberry
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Strawberry, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Strawberry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strawberry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SID BLOCHBrownfields · 900 ft
- BAY WEST PROPERTYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Shineology @ StrawberryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PSI Strawberry Chevron Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STRAWBERRY CHEVRONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Grand GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FIRSTELEMENT FUEL INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- DAVID LIKISHBrownfields · 2200 ft
- MARIN MUNI WTR STRAWBERRY TANKBrownfields · 2200 ft
- FERRARI OF SAN FRANCISCOBrownfields · 2400 ft
- LAUB DERMATOLOGY & AESTHETICS/DAVID A LAUB MDBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MEHRZAD SHAMSIAN DBA/ARCOBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strawberry'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 Strawberry.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strawberry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strawberry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strawberry, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,258 sites within ~10 miles of Strawberry. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Strawberry
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 Strawberry average
Your land is one point inside Strawberry
Everything above resolves to Strawberry as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 851 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marin 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 Strawberry Average
Strawberry Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Strawberry
- ●One soil character for all of Strawberry
- ●Frost dates read at Strawberry's scale: Jan 9 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strawberry's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strawberry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strawberry, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strawberry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strawberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strawberry average
How we know this about Strawberry
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 Marin 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 Strawberry
When does frost risk typically end in Strawberry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strawberry typically lands around Jan 9, 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 Jan 30.
When is the first frost in Strawberry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strawberry typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strawberry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strawberry sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 9 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 30 to Nov 27, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strawberry?
The federal record around Strawberry is a meaningful one — 4,612 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,258), 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 Strawberry?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strawberry's scale — its 10a band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strawberry'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 Strawberry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Strawberry's own scale — the 851 acres it covers and 4,612 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strawberry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4,612 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strawberry, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strawberry's boundary and the 851 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strawberry's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Strawberrylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Strawberry has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strawberry's 851 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marin 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 Marin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strawberry's 851 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strawberry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 851 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 Strawberry-wide figureread your own land →