Swall Meadows, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Swall Meadows, 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 Swall Meadows 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 Swall Meadows — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Swall Meadows — the short answer
Swall Meadows, California: USDA zone 7a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Swall Meadows's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Swall Meadows's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Swall Meadows
Each reading below is measured for Swall Meadows itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSwall Meadows runs about 194 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
MeasuredSwall Meadows 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 Swall Meadows is in
Swall Meadows sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Swall Meadows's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Swall Meadows
Every plant below cleared Swall Meadows's own zone 7a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Swall Meadows?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Swall Meadows
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Swall Meadows. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 005S030E24C001MNitrate · 2600 ft
- PARADISE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- UCLA - BARCROFTBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- UCSD - CROOKED CREEKBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- LA DEPARTMENT WATER & POWERBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- 006S031E19H001MNitrate · 6.7 mi
- Crowley Lake General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- Mistery ClaimMining · 7.1 mi
- Casa Diablo QuicksilverMining · 7.1 mi
- Casa Diablo MineMining · 7.2 mi
- Casa DiabloMining · 7.2 mi
- LONG VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 7.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Swall Meadows'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 Swall Meadows.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Swall Meadows
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Swall Meadows
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •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.
Check your specific parcel in Swall Meadows
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 Swall Meadows average
Your land is one point inside Swall Meadows
Everything above resolves to Swall Meadows as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Swall Meadows Average
Swall Meadows Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Swall Meadows
- ●One soil character for all of Swall Meadows
- ●Frost dates read at Swall Meadows's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Swall Meadows's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Swall Meadows
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Swall Meadows, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Swall Meadows averages can't show:
We read public map data around Swall Meadows — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swall Meadows average
How we know this about Swall Meadows
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 Swall Meadows’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 Swall Meadows
When does frost risk typically end in Swall Meadows?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Swall Meadows typically lands around Apr 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 May 9.
When is the first frost in Swall Meadows?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Swall Meadows typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Swall Meadows?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Swall Meadows sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Swall Meadows?
The federal record around Swall Meadows shows 23 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (9), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 I protect my plants from frost in Swall Meadows?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Swall Meadows's scale — its 7a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Swall Meadows'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 Swall Meadows’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Swall Meadows's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,856 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Swall Meadows's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Swall Meadows's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Swall Meadows, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Swall Meadows's boundary and the 2,856 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Swall Meadows'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 Swall Meadows's 2,856 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 Swall Meadows's 2,856 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Swall Meadows you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,856 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Swall Meadows-wide figureread your own land →