Valley Springs, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Valley Springs, 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 Valley Springs 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 Valley Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley Springs — the short answer
Valley Springs, California: USDA zone 9b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 538 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Calaveras County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Calaveras County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Calaveras County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 538 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 Calaveras County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Valley Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Springs's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Springs
Each reading below is measured for Valley Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsValley Springs runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Calaveras County, the closest normal to Valley Springs) — 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
MeasuredValley Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Valley Springs is in
Valley Springs sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Valley Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calaveras County.
What Grows in Valley Springs
Every plant below cleared Valley Springs's own zone 9b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Springs?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Valley Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OUTWEST AUTO INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- OUTWEST AUTO INC DBA OUTWEST AUTO & RESTORATION & SALESBrownfields · 300 ft
- Valley Springs ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- VS PETRO INC DBA VALLEY SPRINGS CHEVRONBrownfields · 450 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE #4755Brownfields · 500 ft
- AUTOZONE #6205Brownfields · 800 ft
- Valley Springs Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VALLEY SPRINGS MINI MARTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY NO 9390Brownfields · 1900 ft
- CALAVERAS COUNTY DPWBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ZIPPY MART #90Brownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Springs'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 Valley Springs.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Valley Springs
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley Springs, Mining runs higher than the national average — 95 sites within ~10 miles of Valley Springs. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Valley Springs
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 Valley Springs average
Your land is one point inside Valley Springs
Everything above resolves to Valley Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 538 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calaveras 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 Valley Springs Average
Valley Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Valley Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Springs's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Springs's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Springs, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Springs average
How we know this about Valley Springs
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 Calaveras 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 Valley Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Springs typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Valley Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Springs 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 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Springs sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 22, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Springs?
The federal record around Valley Springs runs heavier than most — 223 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (95), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Valley Springs?
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 Valley Springs's scale — its 9b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Springs'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 Valley Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Valley Springs's own scale — the 538 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Springs, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Springs's boundary and the 538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Springs's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Valley Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calaveras County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Springs's 538 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 Valley Springs's 538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 538 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 Valley Springs-wide figureread your own land →