Vallecito, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vallecito, 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 Vallecito 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 Vallecito — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vallecito — the short answer
Vallecito, California: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- 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 9a is Vallecito's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vallecito's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vallecito
Each reading below is measured for Vallecito itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVallecito runs about 291 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
MeasuredVallecito 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 Vallecito is in
Vallecito sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Vallecito's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calaveras County.
What Grows in Vallecito
Every plant below cleared Vallecito's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vallecito?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Vallecito
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vallecito. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRAD SUTTON TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- VERHALEN AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- R&R MUFFLER & AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- UNION PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICTPFAS · 0.8 mi
- RED HILL SANITARY LANDFILLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MOSBAUGH PROPERTIES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CAL FIRE VALLECITO CONSERVATION CAMPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- JOHN KAUTZ FARMSBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Densmore & Young AmericaMining · 2.6 mi
- DensmoreMining · 2.6 mi
- BLUE MOUNTAIN MINERALSBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- LAIDLAW RESTORATIONBrownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vallecito'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 Vallecito.
Total Sites
340
within ~10 miles of Vallecito
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vallecito
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vallecito
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vallecito, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vallecito — Mining (92 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Vallecito
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 Vallecito average
Your land is one point inside Vallecito
Everything above resolves to Vallecito as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Vallecito Average
Vallecito Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Vallecito
- ●One soil character for all of Vallecito
- ●Frost dates read at Vallecito's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vallecito's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vallecito
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vallecito, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vallecito averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vallecito — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vallecito average
How we know this about Vallecito
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 Vallecito’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 Vallecito
When does frost risk typically end in Vallecito?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vallecito typically lands around Feb 17, 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in Vallecito?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vallecito typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vallecito?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vallecito sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 21, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vallecito?
The federal record around Vallecito runs heavier than most — 340 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (213), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Vallecito?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vallecito's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vallecito'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 Vallecito’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vallecito's own scale — its own ~291-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,147 acres it covers and 340 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vallecito's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vallecito's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 17 and Dec 5 and the ~291-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 340 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vallecito, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vallecito's boundary and the 2,147 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vallecito's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vallecito's 2,147 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calaveras County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calaveras 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 Calaveras County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vallecito's 2,147 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vallecito you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,147 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Vallecito-wide figureread your own land →
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