Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tamalpais-Homestead Valley — the short answer
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, California: USDA zone 10a, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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
- 3K 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Each reading below is measured for Tamalpais-Homestead Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTamalpais-Homestead Valley runs about 336 days between hard freezes (read from Marin County, the closest normal to Tamalpais-Homestead Valley) — 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
MeasuredTamalpais-Homestead Valley 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley is in
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marin County.
What Grows in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Every plant below cleared Tamalpais-Homestead Valley'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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TONY BROWNBrownfields · 700 ft
- CURRY ECKELHOSSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MIKE & SARAH LAVEZZOBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MARIN MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CARL VON RUEDENBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TAMALPAIS COMMUNITY SERVICEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Tamalpais Community Services DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JORDAN & ALEXA SHIVELYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- KEVIN WEBBBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SHORELINE CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- IDO PRIELBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HQ FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tamalpais-Homestead Valley'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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley.
Total Sites
3,836
within ~10 miles of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,551 sites within ~10 miles of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley average
Your land is one point inside Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Everything above resolves to Tamalpais-Homestead Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley Average
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's scale: Jan 9 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tamalpais-Homestead Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tamalpais-Homestead Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tamalpais-Homestead Valley average
How we know this about Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tamalpais-Homestead Valley 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tamalpais-Homestead Valley 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley?
The federal record around Tamalpais-Homestead Valley is a meaningful one — 3,836 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,551), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley?
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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's scale — its 10a band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley'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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's own scale — the 2,998 acres it covers and 3,836 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,836 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's boundary and the 2,998 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tamalpais-Homestead Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tamalpais-Homestead Valley 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's 2,998 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley's 2,998 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tamalpais-Homestead Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,998 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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