Benson, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Benson, 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 Benson 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 Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Benson — the short answer
Benson, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 27K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 27K 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 8b is Benson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benson's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benson
Each reading below is measured for Benson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenson runs about 283 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBenson sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Benson is in
Benson sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Benson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Benson
Every plant below cleared Benson's own zone 8b and its 283-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benson?
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 Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Benson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Benson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 408 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Benson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BENSON WATER CO.Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- D-17-20 17CCC1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- D-17-20 22CDC1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- D-17-20 19BBB1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- D-17-19 26DBC1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- US WEST WHETSTONE RADIO # 125652Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- D-18-19 12BCANitrate · 2.8 mi
- GENCOR ASPHALT PLANT 23-291Brownfields · 2.8 mi
- D-18-19 13BDA1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- EXPRESS STOP #701Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- JUNCTION EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- D-17-20 18BBB1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benson'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 Benson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 118 sites within ~10 miles of Benson. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Benson
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 Benson average
Your land is one point inside Benson
Everything above resolves to Benson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 27K 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 city 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 Benson Average
Benson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Benson
- ●One soil character for all of Benson
- ●Frost dates read at Benson's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benson's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benson, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benson average
How we know this about Benson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Benson’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Benson
When does frost risk typically end in Benson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benson typically lands around Feb 21, 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 Mar 14.
When is the first frost in Benson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benson typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 283 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benson sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 17, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benson?
The federal record around Benson is a meaningful one — 172 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (118), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.4 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 Benson?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benson's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benson'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 Benson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Benson's own scale — its own ~283-day season between 28°F freezes, the 26,648 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 21 and Dec 1 and the ~283-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benson, the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benson's boundary and the 26,648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benson's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Benson 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 Benson's 26,648 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cochise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cochise 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 Cochise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benson's 26,648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 26,648 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 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 Benson-wide figureread your own land →