Wawona, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wawona, 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 Wawona 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 Wawona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wawona — the short answer
Wawona, California: USDA zone 8b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 689 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 689 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 8b is Wawona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wawona's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wawona
Each reading below is measured for Wawona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWawona runs about 215 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWawona sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Wawona is in
Wawona sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Wawona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mariposa County.
What Grows in Wawona
Every plant below cleared Wawona's own zone 8b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wawona?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Wawona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wawona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YNP-Wawona Waste Water Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- YH - Wawona Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- YH - Wawona HotelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- PACFIC BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- TENAYA LODGEBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- BiladeauMining · 5.2 mi
- Wawona and Yellowstone ProspectsMining · 5.2 mi
- Mt. Raymond MinesMining · 5.3 mi
- S.P. GroupMining · 5.3 mi
- StarMining · 5.3 mi
- YNP-Wawona Tunnel GeneratorUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wawona'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 Wawona.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wawona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wawona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wawona, Mining runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Wawona. 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 Wawona
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 Wawona average
Your land is one point inside Wawona
Everything above resolves to Wawona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 689 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 Wawona Average
Wawona Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wawona
- ●One soil character for all of Wawona
- ●Frost dates read at Wawona's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wawona's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wawona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wawona, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wawona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wawona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wawona average
How we know this about Wawona
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 Wawona’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 Wawona
When does frost risk typically end in Wawona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wawona typically lands around Apr 13, 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 May 4.
When is the first frost in Wawona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wawona typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wawona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wawona sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 31, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wawona?
The federal record around Wawona is a meaningful one — 33 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wawona?
From about Oct 15 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 Nov 14 (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 Nov 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wawona's scale — its 8b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wawona'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 Wawona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wawona's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 689 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wawona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wawona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 14 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wawona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wawona's boundary and the 689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wawona's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wawona's 689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mariposa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mariposa 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 Mariposa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wawona's 689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wawona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 689 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wawona-wide figureread your own land →
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