Winters, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Winters, 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 Winters 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 Winters — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Winters — the short answer
Winters, California: USDA zone 9b, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Yolo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Winters's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winters's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winters
Each reading below is measured for Winters itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWinters runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Yolo County, the closest normal to Winters) — 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
MeasuredWinters 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 Winters is in
Winters sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Winters's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yolo County.
What Grows in Winters
Every plant below cleared Winters's own zone 9b and its 334-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winters?
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 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Winters
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winters. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VINTAGE PAVING CO INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- 008N001W21B003MNitrate · 1700 ft
- ACCESS MANUFACTURING, INC.Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- 008N001W16G002MNitrate · 0.5 mi
- DOUBLE M TRUCKINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- H&S KANG ENTERPRISES INC DBA WINTERS COUNTRY MARKETBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WINTERS COUNTRY MARKETBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PISANI'S SERVICEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WINTERS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WINTERS JUSD/TRANSPORTATION DEPT.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- PISANI'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BERRYESSA SPORTING GOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winters'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 Winters.
Total Sites
333
within ~10 miles of Winters
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winters
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winters
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winters, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winters — Brownfields (242 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Winters
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 Winters average
Your land is one point inside Winters
Everything above resolves to Winters as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yolo County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Winters Average
Winters Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Winters
- ●One soil character for all of Winters
- ●Frost dates read at Winters's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winters's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winters
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winters, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winters averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winters — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winters average
How we know this about Winters
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Yolo 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Winters
When does frost risk typically end in Winters?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winters typically lands around Jan 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Winters?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winters typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winters?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winters sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Dec 3, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winters?
The federal record around Winters is a meaningful one — 333 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (242), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Winters?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winters's scale — its 9b band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winters'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 Winters’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Winters's own scale — the 1,878 acres it covers and 333 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winters's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 333 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winters, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winters's boundary and the 1,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~334-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winters's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Winters has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yolo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winters's 1,878 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yolo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yolo 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 Yolo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winters's 1,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winters you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,878 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Winters-wide figureread your own land →