Sunny Slopes, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sunny Slopes, 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 Sunny Slopes 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 Sunny Slopes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunny Slopes — the short answer
Sunny Slopes, California: USDA zone 6b, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- 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 6b is Sunny Slopes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunny Slopes's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunny Slopes
Each reading below is measured for Sunny Slopes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunny Slopes runs about 145 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
MeasuredSunny Slopes sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Sunny Slopes is in
Sunny Slopes sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sunny Slopes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Sunny Slopes
Every plant below cleared Sunny Slopes's own zone 6b and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunny Slopes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Sunny Slopes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunny Slopes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crowley Lake General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LONG VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- 005S030E24C001MNitrate · 4.9 mi
- Casa Diablo QuicksilverMining · 6.7 mi
- Casa Diablo MineMining · 6.7 mi
- Casa DiabloMining · 6.8 mi
- PARADISE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- Independence MineMining · 7.1 mi
- Crater ViewMining · 7.2 mi
- King GroupMining · 7.3 mi
- Clover Patch, Gold Lode, B. B. and Old Glory Groups of Claims.Mining · 7.5 mi
- Sierra Vista MineMining · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunny Slopes'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 Sunny Slopes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunny Slopes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunny Slopes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunny Slopes, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Sunny Slopes. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Sunny Slopes
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 Sunny Slopes average
Your land is one point inside Sunny Slopes
Everything above resolves to Sunny Slopes 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 Sunny Slopes Average
Sunny Slopes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sunny Slopes
- ●One soil character for all of Sunny Slopes
- ●Frost dates read at Sunny Slopes's scale: May 18 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunny Slopes's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunny Slopes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunny Slopes, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunny Slopes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunny Slopes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunny Slopes average
How we know this about Sunny Slopes
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 Sunny Slopes’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 Sunny Slopes
When does frost risk typically end in Sunny Slopes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunny Slopes typically lands around May 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Sunny Slopes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunny Slopes typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunny Slopes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunny Slopes sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 26, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunny Slopes?
The federal record around Sunny Slopes runs heavier than most — 38 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Sunny Slopes?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sunny Slopes 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Sunny Slopes's scale — its 6b band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunny Slopes'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 Sunny Slopes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunny Slopes's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,206 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunny Slopes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunny Slopes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Oct 10 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunny Slopes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunny Slopes's boundary and the 1,206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunny Slopes's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunny Slopes's 1,206 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunny Slopes's 1,206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunny Slopes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,206 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 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 Sunny Slopes-wide figureread your own land →