Tobin, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Tobin, 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 Tobin 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 Tobin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tobin — the short answer
Tobin, California: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- 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 8b is Tobin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tobin's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tobin
Each reading below is measured for Tobin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTobin runs about 263 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredTobin sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Tobin is in
Tobin sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Tobin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in Tobin
Every plant below cleared Tobin's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tobin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Tobin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tobin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC - ROCK CREEK POWERHOUSEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CALTRANS DIST 3/CONSTR/EA02-3016U4Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CALTRANS 02-1C7504Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- PG&E CRESTA POWERHOUSEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- PG&E - POE POWERHOUSEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Mordine and MoraineMining · 4.5 mi
- GarnetMining · 5.4 mi
- Belden MineMining · 6.3 mi
- Dew DropMining · 6.4 mi
- WilliamsMining · 6.7 mi
- Galena MineMining · 7.1 mi
- Upper FeatherMining · 7.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tobin'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 Tobin.
Total Sites
29
within ~10 miles of Tobin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tobin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tobin, Mining runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Tobin. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Tobin
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 Tobin average
Your land is one point inside Tobin
Everything above resolves to Tobin 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 Tobin Average
Tobin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tobin
- ●One soil character for all of Tobin
- ●Frost dates read at Tobin's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tobin's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tobin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tobin, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tobin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tobin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tobin average
How we know this about Tobin
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 Tobin’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 Tobin
When does frost risk typically end in Tobin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tobin typically lands around Mar 12, 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Tobin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tobin typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tobin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tobin sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 16, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tobin?
The federal record around Tobin is a meaningful one — 29 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (19), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Tobin?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tobin's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tobin'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 Tobin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tobin's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,303 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tobin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tobin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 30 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tobin, the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tobin's boundary and the 3,303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tobin's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tobin's 3,303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tobin's 3,303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tobin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,303 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Tobin-wide figureread your own land →