West Menlo Park, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Menlo Park, 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 West Menlo Park 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 West Menlo Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Menlo Park — the short answer
West Menlo Park, California: USDA zone 9b, about 347 days between hard freezes, across 310 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~347
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 310 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 9b is West Menlo Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Menlo Park's 347-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Menlo Park
Each reading below is measured for West Menlo Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Menlo Park runs about 347 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
MeasuredWest Menlo Park 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 West Menlo Park is in
West Menlo Park sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at West Menlo Park's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Mateo County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in West Menlo Park
Every plant below cleared West Menlo Park's own zone 9b and its 347-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Menlo Park?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around West Menlo Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from West Menlo Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Menlo Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Menlo Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTRY CLUB CLEANERSBrownfields · 650 ft
- PRIVATE MEDICAL - SILICON VALLEY (HALO)Brownfields · 750 ft
- PRIVATE MEDICAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- JOHN H BURKHOLDER DMD A PROF CORPBrownfields · 900 ft
- MARZIA PETROLEUM ENTERPRISES, INC.Brownfields · 1000 ft
- DAVID HERSHBERGERBrownfields · 1500 ft
- YI HYON PAIKBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MARCIA RYLESBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 1220 N LEMON AVEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SHIHWIN MABrownfields · 2200 ft
- DEREK BASEHOREBrownfields · 2400 ft
- GREGORY GALLOBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Menlo Park'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 West Menlo Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Menlo Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Menlo Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Menlo Park, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,965 sites within ~10 miles of West Menlo Park. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in West Menlo Park
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 West Menlo Park average
Your land is one point inside West Menlo Park
Everything above resolves to West Menlo Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 310 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 West Menlo Park Average
West Menlo Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across West Menlo Park
- ●One soil character for all of West Menlo Park
- ●Frost dates read at West Menlo Park's scale: Jan 9 to Dec 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Menlo Park's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Menlo Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Menlo Park, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Menlo Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Menlo Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Menlo Park average
How we know this about West Menlo Park
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 West Menlo Park’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 West Menlo Park
When does frost risk typically end in West Menlo Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Menlo Park typically lands around Jan 9, 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 Jan 30.
When is the first frost in West Menlo Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Menlo Park typically arrives around Dec 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 8, so the watching starts about Nov 22 — about 347 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Menlo Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Menlo Park sees about 347 frost-free days — roughly Jan 9 through Dec 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 30 to Dec 8, about 312 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Menlo Park?
The federal record around West Menlo Park runs heavier than most — 4,403 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,965), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 West Menlo Park?
From about Nov 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Menlo Park's scale — its 9b band and its 347-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Menlo Park'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 West Menlo Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Menlo Park's own scale — its own ~347-day season between 28°F freezes, the 310 acres it covers and 4,403 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Menlo Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Menlo Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 9 and Dec 22 and the ~347-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,403 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Menlo Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Menlo Park's boundary and the 310 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~347-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- West Menlo Park sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of West Menlo Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Menlo Park's 310 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 San Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Menlo Park's 310 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Menlo Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 310 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 West Menlo Park-wide figureread your own land →