Vandenberg AFB, 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.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vandenberg AFB, 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 Vandenberg AFB 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 Vandenberg AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vandenberg AFB — the short answer
Vandenberg AFB, California: USDA zone 10a, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 10a is Vandenberg AFB's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vandenberg AFB's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vandenberg AFB
Each reading below is measured for Vandenberg AFB itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVandenberg AFB runs about 331 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
MeasuredVandenberg AFB 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 Vandenberg AFB is in
Vandenberg AFB sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Vandenberg AFB's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Vandenberg AFB
Every plant below cleared Vandenberg AFB's own zone 10a and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vandenberg AFB?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Vandenberg AFB
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vandenberg AFB. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 007N035W01M002SNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 008N035W35Q001SNitrate · 1.4 mi
- AAFESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 008N035W35K001SNitrate · 1.4 mi
- SPACE LAUNCH COMPLEX 4Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- INTEGRATED PROCESSING FACILITYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 2R DRILLING, INC.Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- GULF MARINE FABRICATORS INC HARMONYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE NEWBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- RPI COATING INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CEMEX SANTA BARBARA PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- AMERICAN WATER O & M INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vandenberg AFB'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 Vandenberg AFB.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vandenberg AFB
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vandenberg AFB
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vandenberg AFB, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 612 sites within ~10 miles of Vandenberg AFB. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Vandenberg AFB
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 Vandenberg AFB average
Your land is one point inside Vandenberg AFB
Everything above resolves to Vandenberg AFB as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Vandenberg AFB Average
Vandenberg AFB Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Vandenberg AFB
- ●One soil character for all of Vandenberg AFB
- ●Frost dates read at Vandenberg AFB's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vandenberg AFB's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vandenberg AFB
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vandenberg AFB, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vandenberg AFB averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vandenberg AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vandenberg AFB average
How we know this about Vandenberg AFB
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 Vandenberg AFB’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 Vandenberg AFB
When does frost risk typically end in Vandenberg AFB?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vandenberg AFB typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Vandenberg AFB?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vandenberg AFB typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vandenberg AFB?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vandenberg AFB sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Nov 28, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vandenberg AFB?
The federal record around Vandenberg AFB is a meaningful one — 863 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (612), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Vandenberg AFB?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vandenberg AFB's scale — its 10a band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vandenberg AFB'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 Vandenberg AFB’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vandenberg AFB's own scale — its own ~331-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,332 acres it covers and 863 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vandenberg AFB's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vandenberg AFB's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 15 and Dec 12 and the ~331-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 863 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vandenberg AFB, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vandenberg AFB's boundary and the 14,332 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vandenberg AFB'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 Vandenberg AFB's 14,332 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vandenberg AFB's 14,332 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vandenberg AFB you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,332 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Vandenberg AFB-wide figureread your own land →