Bryce, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Bryce, 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 Bryce 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 Bryce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bryce — the short answer
Bryce, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 538 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 538 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 Bryce's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bryce's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bryce
Each reading below is measured for Bryce itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBryce runs about 270 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
MeasuredBryce 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 Bryce is in
Bryce sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Bryce's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Graham County is mostly Madrean Archipelago. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bryce
Every plant below cleared Bryce's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bryce?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Bryce
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bryce checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 426 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bryce
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bryce. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-06-24 13ABD1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- D-06-24 13ACNitrate · 1.3 mi
- D-06-25 17AAA2Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- ACE AVIATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GRAHAM COUNTY ELECTRIC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PIMA SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PIMA MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MENDEZ CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- D-06-24 02ADCNitrate · 2.2 mi
- D-06-24 14ABNitrate · 2.2 mi
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2981Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PIMA SCHOOL DISTRICT BUS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bryce'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 Bryce.
Total Sites
168
within ~10 miles of Bryce
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bryce
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bryce
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bryce, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bryce — Nitrate (74 sites) and Mining (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Bryce
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 Bryce average
Your land is one point inside Bryce
Everything above resolves to Bryce as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 538 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 Bryce Average
Bryce Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bryce
- ●One soil character for all of Bryce
- ●Frost dates read at Bryce's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bryce's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bryce
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bryce, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bryce averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bryce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bryce average
How we know this about Bryce
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 Bryce’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 Bryce
When does frost risk typically end in Bryce?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bryce typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Bryce?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bryce typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bryce?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bryce sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 8, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bryce?
The federal record around Bryce shows 168 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bryce?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bryce's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bryce'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 Bryce’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bryce's own scale — its own ~270-day season between 28°F freezes, the 538 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bryce's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bryce's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 25 and Nov 22 and the ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bryce, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bryce's boundary and the 538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bryce sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bryce 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 Bryce's 538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Graham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Graham 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 Graham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bryce's 538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bryce you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 538 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Bryce-wide figureread your own land →
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