Ukiah, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ukiah, 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 Ukiah 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 Ukiah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ukiah — the short answer
Ukiah, California: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Mendocino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Mendocino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ukiah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ukiah's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ukiah
Each reading below is measured for Ukiah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUkiah runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Mendocino County, the closest normal to Ukiah) — 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
MeasuredUkiah sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Ukiah is in
Ukiah sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Ukiah's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mendocino County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ukiah
Every plant below cleared Ukiah's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ukiah?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Ukiah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ukiah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REDWOOD AUTO SUPPLYBrownfields · 500 ft
- ALLIANCE AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 650 ft
- DFM GARAGE INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- EARL'S AUTO AND TIREBrownfields · 950 ft
- D Z INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- C AND M TRANSMISSION INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- UKIAH DAILY JOURNALBrownfields · 1000 ft
- RAINBOW AGRICULTURAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BELKORP AGBrownfields · 1100 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AT&T California - TD100Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SAFEWAY 1583Brownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ukiah'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 Ukiah.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ukiah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ukiah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ukiah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ukiah — Brownfields (256 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ukiah
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 Ukiah average
Your land is one point inside Ukiah
Everything above resolves to Ukiah as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mendocino County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Ukiah Average
Ukiah Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ukiah
- ●One soil character for all of Ukiah
- ●Frost dates read at Ukiah's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ukiah's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ukiah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ukiah, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ukiah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ukiah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ukiah average
How we know this about Ukiah
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mendocino 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ukiah
When does frost risk typically end in Ukiah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ukiah typically lands around Feb 5, 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 Feb 26.
When is the first frost in Ukiah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ukiah typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ukiah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ukiah sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ukiah?
The federal record around Ukiah is a meaningful one — 321 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (256), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ukiah?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ukiah's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ukiah'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 Ukiah’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ukiah's own scale — the 3,512 acres it covers and 321 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ukiah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 321 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ukiah, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ukiah's boundary and the 3,512 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ukiah sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ukiah has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mendocino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ukiah's 3,512 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mendocino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mendocino 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 Mendocino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ukiah's 3,512 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ukiah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,512 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ukiah-wide figureread your own land →