Ash Fork, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Ash Fork, 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 Ash Fork 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 Ash Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ash Fork — the short answer
Ash Fork, Arizona: USDA zone 7b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- 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 7b is Ash Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ash Fork's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ash Fork
Each reading below is measured for Ash Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAsh Fork runs about 208 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAsh Fork sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Ash Fork is in
Ash Fork sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ash Fork's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yavapai County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ash Fork
Every plant below cleared Ash Fork's own zone 7b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ash Fork?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Ash Fork
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ash Fork checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 303 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ash Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ash Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILLSIDE RV PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ADOT - ASH FORKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- RICK MURPHY'S SHELLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- RICK MURPHY'S SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SHAMROCK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DUNBAR STONE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FERNOW ROUTE 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KAIBAB REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FELTON'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #9385Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SANTA FE MECHANICAL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ash Fork'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 Ash Fork.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ash Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ash Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Ash Fork
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 Ash Fork average
Your land is one point inside Ash Fork
Everything above resolves to Ash Fork 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 Ash Fork Average
Ash Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ash Fork
- ●One soil character for all of Ash Fork
- ●Frost dates read at Ash Fork's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ash Fork's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ash Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ash Fork, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ash Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ash Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ash Fork average
How we know this about Ash Fork
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 Ash Fork’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 Ash Fork
When does frost risk typically end in Ash Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ash Fork typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Ash Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ash Fork typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ash Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ash Fork sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 20, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ash Fork?
The federal record around Ash Fork is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ash Fork?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ash Fork's scale — its 7b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ash Fork'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 Ash Fork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ash Fork's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,476 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ash Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ash Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 3 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ash Fork, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ash Fork's boundary and the 1,476 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ash Fork sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ash Fork checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ash Fork's 1,476 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yavapai County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yavapai County
- The growing challenges every Arizona grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arizona
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Yavapai County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ash Fork's 1,476 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ash Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,476 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ash Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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