Verdi, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Verdi, 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 Verdi 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 Verdi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Verdi — the short answer
Verdi, California: USDA zone 7a, about 122 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~122
- 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 7a is Verdi's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Verdi's 122-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Verdi
Each reading below is measured for Verdi itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVerdi runs about 122 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVerdi sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Verdi is in
Verdi sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Verdi's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sierra County.
What Grows in Verdi
Every plant below cleared Verdi's own zone 7a and its 122-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Verdi?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Verdi
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Verdi. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Walts Zinc ProspectMining · 0.9 mi
- Sierra Pacific Power Co-Verdi Power House-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 091 N19 E18 19ABBA1 Washoe Co - W-1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Chevron #9-2560-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Boomtown Hotel & CasinoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Margaret LupinoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Gold Ranch CasinoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- First Chance Chevron-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Former Gulf Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DAN GOODRICH EXCAVATIONBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- BRUCE OLSON CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Paul BichelerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Verdi'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 Verdi.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Verdi
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Verdi
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Verdi
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Verdi, Mining runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Verdi. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Verdi
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 Verdi average
Your land is one point inside Verdi
Everything above resolves to Verdi 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 Verdi Average
Verdi Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Verdi
- ●One soil character for all of Verdi
- ●Frost dates read at Verdi's scale: May 31 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Verdi's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Verdi
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Verdi, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Verdi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Verdi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Verdi average
How we know this about Verdi
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 Verdi’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 Verdi
When does frost risk typically end in Verdi?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Verdi typically lands around May 31, 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 Jun 21.
When is the first frost in Verdi?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Verdi typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 122 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Verdi?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Verdi sees about 122 frost-free days — roughly May 31 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 21 to Sep 16, about 87 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Verdi?
The federal record around Verdi is a meaningful one — 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Mining record about 0.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Verdi?
With about 122 frost-free days between hard freezes, Verdi rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 150 to 178 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 31 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Verdi's scale — its 7a band and its 122-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Verdi'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 Verdi’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Verdi's own scale — its own ~122-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,671 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Verdi's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Verdi's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 31 and Sep 30 and the ~122-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Verdi, the closest Mining record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Verdi's boundary and the 2,671 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~122-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Verdi's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Verdi's 2,671 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sierra County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sierra 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 Sierra County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Verdi's 2,671 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Verdi you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,671 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.9 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 Verdi-wide figureread your own land →
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