Yosemite Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Yosemite Valley, 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 Yosemite Valley 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 Yosemite Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Yosemite Valley — the short answer
Yosemite Valley, California: USDA zone 8a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 8a is Yosemite Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yosemite Valley's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yosemite Valley
Each reading below is measured for Yosemite Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYosemite Valley runs about 195 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredYosemite Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Yosemite Valley is in
Yosemite Valley sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Yosemite Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mariposa County.
What Grows in Yosemite Valley
Every plant below cleared Yosemite Valley's own zone 8a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yosemite Valley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Yosemite Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yosemite Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YH - Curry VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- YNP-Yosemite Medical ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- YH - The AhwahneeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- YH - Tecoya DormsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- YOSEMITE HOSPITALITY LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- AT&TBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- YH - Maintenance WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- YH - Lost Arrow DormsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- YH - Village StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- YH - Indian Creek ApartmentsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- YH - General OfficesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yosemite Valley'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 Yosemite Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yosemite Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yosemite Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Yosemite Valley
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 Yosemite Valley average
Your land is one point inside Yosemite Valley
Everything above resolves to Yosemite Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Yosemite Valley Average
Yosemite Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Yosemite Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Yosemite Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Yosemite Valley's scale: Apr 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yosemite Valley's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yosemite Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yosemite Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yosemite Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yosemite Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yosemite Valley average
How we know this about Yosemite Valley
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 Yosemite Valley’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 Yosemite Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Yosemite Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yosemite Valley typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Yosemite Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yosemite Valley typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yosemite Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yosemite Valley sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 24, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yosemite Valley?
The federal record around Yosemite Valley is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Yosemite Valley?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yosemite Valley's scale — its 8a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yosemite Valley'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 Yosemite Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yosemite Valley's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,317 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yosemite Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yosemite Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Nov 7 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yosemite Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yosemite Valley's boundary and the 1,317 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yosemite Valley's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yosemite Valley's 1,317 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 Yosemite Valley's 1,317 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yosemite Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,317 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 Yosemite Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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