Bear Flat, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bear Flat, 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 Bear Flat 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 Bear Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bear Flat — the short answer
Bear Flat, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 102 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 102 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 Bear Flat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Flat's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear Flat
Each reading below is measured for Bear Flat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBear Flat runs about 209 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
MeasuredBear Flat 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 Bear Flat is in
Bear Flat sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Bear Flat's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Bear Flat
Every plant below cleared Bear Flat's own zone 8a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bear Flat?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Bear Flat
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bear Flat checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 360 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bear Flat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear Flat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- R BAR C SCOUT RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CAMP TONTOZONAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- A-11-12 32BBANitrate · 2.9 mi
- CHEVRON - CHRISTOPHER CREEK CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- A-11-11H08AAANitrate · 4.3 mi
- Hillside Clai3Mining · 4.4 mi
- A-11-11H05DCDNitrate · 4.6 mi
- A-11-11H20CBCNitrate · 4.9 mi
- A-10H12 19DADNitrate · 4.9 mi
- ADOT - COLCORD MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- A-11-13 34CBANitrate · 5.3 mi
- AG&F - TONTO CREEK FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear Flat'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 Bear Flat.
Total Sites
35
within ~10 miles of Bear Flat
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear Flat
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear Flat
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bear Flat, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bear Flat — Nitrate (26 sites) and Mining (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Bear Flat
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 Bear Flat average
Your land is one point inside Bear Flat
Everything above resolves to Bear Flat as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 102 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 Bear Flat Average
Bear Flat Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bear Flat
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Flat
- ●Frost dates read at Bear Flat's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Flat's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear Flat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Flat, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Flat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Flat average
How we know this about Bear Flat
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 Bear Flat’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 Bear Flat
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Flat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Flat typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Bear Flat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Flat 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bear Flat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear Flat sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 24, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Flat?
The federal record around Bear Flat is light — 35 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Bear Flat?
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 Bear Flat's scale — its 8a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear Flat'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 Bear Flat’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bear Flat's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 102 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Flat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bear Flat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 7 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear Flat, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear Flat's boundary and the 102 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bear Flat's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bear Flat 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 Bear Flat's 102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear Flat's 102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear Flat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Bear Flat-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaBear Flat sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides