Yucca Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Yucca 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 Yucca 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 Yucca Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Yucca Valley — the short answer
Yucca Valley, California: USDA zone 9a, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 25K 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 San Bernardino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Yucca Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yucca Valley's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yucca Valley
Each reading below is measured for Yucca Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsYucca Valley runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from San Bernardino County, the closest normal to Yucca Valley) — 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
MeasuredYucca Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Yucca Valley is in
Yucca Valley sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Yucca Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Bernardino County.
What Grows in Yucca Valley
Every plant below cleared Yucca Valley's own zone 9a and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yucca Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Yucca Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yucca Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEAM CAR CARE WEST LLC DBA JIFFY LUBEBrownfields · 650 ft
- 001N005E36M004SNitrate · 800 ft
- ATV INC DBA AMERICAN TIRE DEPOTBrownfields · 800 ft
- 001N005E36M006SNitrate · 850 ft
- 001N005E36M005SNitrate · 850 ft
- PHELPS CHEVROLET NISSANBrownfields · 850 ft
- TESORO (SHELL) 63350Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ANDONIAN ENTERPRISES INC DBA DISCOUNT TIRE CENTER # 154Brownfields · 950 ft
- SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT-HHW PROGRAMBrownfields · 950 ft
- SAN BERNARDINO CTY/DEHS/YUCCABrownfields · 950 ft
- SPEEDWAY NO. 4988 (USA)Brownfields · 950 ft
- OASIS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yucca 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 Yucca Valley.
Total Sites
299
within ~10 miles of Yucca Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yucca Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yucca Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yucca Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Yucca Valley — Nitrate (128 sites) and Brownfields (146 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Yucca 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 Yucca Valley average
Your land is one point inside Yucca Valley
Everything above resolves to Yucca Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 25K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Bernardino County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Yucca Valley Average
Yucca Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Yucca Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Yucca Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Yucca Valley's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yucca Valley's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yucca Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yucca Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yucca Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yucca Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yucca Valley average
How we know this about Yucca 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 San Bernardino 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 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 Yucca Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Yucca Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yucca Valley typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Yucca Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yucca Valley typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yucca Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yucca Valley sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Nov 28, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yucca Valley?
The federal record around Yucca Valley is a meaningful one — 299 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (146), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Yucca Valley?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yucca Valley's scale — its 9a band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yucca 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 Yucca Valley’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Yucca Valley's own scale — the 25,492 acres it covers and 299 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yucca Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 299 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yucca Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yucca Valley's boundary and the 25,492 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yucca Valley's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Yucca Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Bernardino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yucca Valley's 25,492 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Bernardino 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 Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yucca Valley's 25,492 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yucca 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 25,492 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 Yucca Valley-wide figureread your own land →