Strawberry, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 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.
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Strawberry — the short answer
Strawberry, California: USDA zone 8a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 333 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 333 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 8a is Strawberry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strawberry's 187-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
MeasuredStrawberry runs about 187 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStrawberry sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Strawberry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tuolumne County.
What Grows in Strawberry
Every plant below cleared Strawberry's own zone 8a and its 187-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 Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Strawberry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strawberry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRI-DAM PROJECTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- USDA USFS R05 T RD (STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST)Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CTY OF TOULUMNE DPWBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PINECREST TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CALIFORNIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- TIMBERLINE ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- TOMS SIERRA CO INC/DBA SIERRA ENERGY #40Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- Sierra Energy #40Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ERIC BREWERBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- CALIF SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION/JENNESBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- 003N017E02G001MNitrate · 4.9 mi
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
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
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 and one 28°F frost record, read across 333 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 Strawberry Average
Strawberry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Strawberry
- ●One soil character for all of Strawberry
- ●Frost dates read at Strawberry's scale: May 3 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strawberry's 8a
- ✓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 Strawberry’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 Strawberry
When does frost risk typically end in Strawberry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strawberry typically lands around May 3, 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 May 24.
When is the first frost in Strawberry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strawberry typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strawberry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strawberry sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 23, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strawberry?
The federal record around Strawberry is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (12), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Strawberry?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strawberry's scale — its 8a band and its 187-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 — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 333 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strawberry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strawberry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Nov 6 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strawberry, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strawberry's boundary and the 333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strawberry's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strawberry's 333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strawberry's 333 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 333 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 Strawberry-wide figureread your own land →