Grass Valley, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grass 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 Grass 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 Grass Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grass Valley — the short answer
Grass Valley, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 22K 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 6b is Grass Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grass Valley's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grass Valley
Each reading below is measured for Grass Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrass Valley runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGrass Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Grass Valley is in
Grass Valley sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Grass Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pershing County.
What Grows in Grass Valley
Every plant below cleared Grass Valley's own zone 6b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grass Valley?
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 Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Grass Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grass Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 071 N34 E38 07A 1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 071 N34 E37 03D 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- Lead Carbonate MineMining · 4.8 mi
- NBMG Sample Site 2350Mining · 4.9 mi
- Midway Group MineMining · 5.4 mi
- Midway Group Mine New DayMining · 5.5 mi
- 071 N35 E37 25AD 1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- Auburn MineMining · 6.0 mi
- Little Jupiter MineMining · 6.3 mi
- Rose Creek MineMining · 6.4 mi
- Rose CreekMining · 6.5 mi
- Gold Summit MineMining · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grass 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 Grass Valley.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Grass Valley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grass Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grass Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grass Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Grass Valley — Mining (24 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Grass 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 Grass Valley average
Your land is one point inside Grass Valley
Everything above resolves to Grass Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Grass Valley Average
Grass Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Grass Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Grass Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Grass Valley's scale: May 9 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grass Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grass Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grass Valley, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grass Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grass Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grass Valley average
How we know this about Grass 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 Grass 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 Grass Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Grass Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grass Valley typically lands around May 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 May 30.
When is the first frost in Grass Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grass Valley typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grass Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grass Valley sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 20, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grass Valley?
The federal record around Grass Valley runs heavier than most — 67 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in Grass Valley?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Grass Valley rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Grass Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grass 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 Grass Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grass Valley's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,087 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grass Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grass Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 4 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grass Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grass Valley's boundary and the 22,087 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grass Valley's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grass Valley's 22,087 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pershing County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pershing County
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pershing County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grass Valley's 22,087 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grass 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 22,087 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 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 Grass Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Growing region
Nearby growing guides