Woodland, 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 Woodland, 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 Woodland 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 Woodland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodland — the short answer
Woodland, California: USDA zone 9b, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 10K 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
- 10K 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 Woodland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodland's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodland
Each reading below is measured for Woodland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWoodland runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Yolo County, the closest normal to Woodland) — 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
MeasuredWoodland 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 Woodland is in
Woodland sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Woodland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yolo County.
What Grows in Woodland
Every plant below cleared Woodland'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 Woodland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Woodland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PDQ EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR TREE #04760Brownfields · 1900 ft
- SUNDANCE, LLC DBA SUNDANCE CARWASH & EXPRESS LUBEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- JIN BONG LEE & YU JIN LEE DBA SUNDANCE CARWASH EXPRESS LUBEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- FOOD 4 LESSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BIG 5 SPORTING GOODS #244Brownfields · 2100 ft
- G & S GASOLINE INC DBA WODDLAND CHEVRONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- WOODLAND CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DOTY'S HERITAGEBrownfields · 2400 ft
- J & J TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MID-PACIFIC INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- TRILLIUM USA CO LLCBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodland'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 Woodland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodland, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 729 sites within ~10 miles of Woodland. 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 Woodland
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 Woodland average
Your land is one point inside Woodland
Everything above resolves to Woodland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K 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 Woodland Average
Woodland Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Woodland
- ●One soil character for all of Woodland
- ●Frost dates read at Woodland's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodland's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodland, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodland average
How we know this about Woodland
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 Woodland
When does frost risk typically end in Woodland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodland 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 Woodland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodland 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 Woodland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodland 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 Woodland?
The federal record around Woodland is a meaningful one — 952 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (729), the nearest Brownfields 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 Woodland?
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 Woodland's scale — its 9b band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodland'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 Woodland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Woodland's own scale — the 9,802 acres it covers and 952 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 952 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodland's boundary and the 9,802 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 Woodland's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Woodland 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 Woodland's 9,802 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 Woodland's 9,802 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,802 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Woodland-wide figureread your own land →