Sunnyside-Tahoe City, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunnyside-Tahoe City — the short answer
Sunnyside-Tahoe City, California: USDA zone 7a, about 140 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~140
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Sunnyside-Tahoe City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunnyside-Tahoe City's 140-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own 30-year record measures about 140 days between 28°F killing freezes — 150 days shorter than Placer County's ~290. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Sunnyside-Tahoe City's ~140-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Each reading below is measured for Sunnyside-Tahoe City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunnyside-Tahoe City runs about 140 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
MeasuredSunnyside-Tahoe City sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City is in
Sunnyside-Tahoe City sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Placer County.
What Grows in Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Every plant below cleared Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own zone 7a and its 140-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunnyside-Tahoe City?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunnyside-Tahoe City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TALMONT RESORT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTBrownfields · 950 ft
- 090 N15 E17 18BCB 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- SUNNYSIDE MARINA INC. (DK)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUNNYSIDE MARINABrownfields · 1.1 mi
- USDA USFS R05 TAHOE CITY CABrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 090 N15 E16 24CBCD1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- EUROPEAN PERFORMANCEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- CALTRANS TAHOE CITY MAINTENANCE FACILITYBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 090 N15 E17 07CADB1 Tahoe TreeNitrate · 1.6 mi
- OWENS PIERBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- DALMAU PAINTINGBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- TAHOE CITY PUD - MAIN-TAHOE CITY WELL 01 (BUNKER WELL) TREATEDBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City.
Total Sites
168
within ~10 miles of Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 mining sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunnyside-Tahoe City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sunnyside-Tahoe City — PFAS (3 sites) and Brownfields (105 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City average
Your land is one point inside Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Everything above resolves to Sunnyside-Tahoe City as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City Average
Sunnyside-Tahoe City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sunnyside-Tahoe City
- ●One soil character for all of Sunnyside-Tahoe City
- ●Frost dates read at Sunnyside-Tahoe City's scale: May 26 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunnyside-Tahoe City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunnyside-Tahoe City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunnyside-Tahoe City, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunnyside-Tahoe City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunnyside-Tahoe City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunnyside-Tahoe City average
How we know this about Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City
When does frost risk typically end in Sunnyside-Tahoe City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunnyside-Tahoe City typically lands around May 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Sunnyside-Tahoe City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunnyside-Tahoe City typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 140 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunnyside-Tahoe City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunnyside-Tahoe City sees about 140 frost-free days — roughly May 26 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 16 to Sep 29, about 105 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunnyside-Tahoe City?
The federal record around Sunnyside-Tahoe City shows 168 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (105), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Sunnyside-Tahoe City?
With about 140 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sunnyside-Tahoe City 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 168 to 196 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 26 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Sunnyside-Tahoe City's scale — its 7a band and its 140-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own scale — its own ~140-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,228 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 26 and Oct 13 and the ~140-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunnyside-Tahoe City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunnyside-Tahoe City's boundary and the 2,228 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~140-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunnyside-Tahoe City's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunnyside-Tahoe City's 2,228 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Placer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Placer 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 Placer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunnyside-Tahoe City's 2,228 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunnyside-Tahoe 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 2,228 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 Sunnyside-Tahoe City-wide figureread your own land →
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