Cameron, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cameron, 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 Cameron 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 Cameron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cameron — the short answer
Cameron, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Cameron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cameron's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cameron
Each reading below is measured for Cameron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCameron runs about 236 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
MeasuredCameron 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 Cameron is in
Cameron sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cameron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coconino County.
What Grows in Cameron
Every plant below cleared Cameron's own zone 8a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cameron?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cameron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cameron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03 098-10.74X09.85Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 03 098-11.17X10.05Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- CAMERON NAVAJO RADIOACTIVE STRUCTURESSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- 03 098-09.25X08.69ANitrate · 1.6 mi
- 03 098-09.15X08.69Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- CAMERON AGGREGATED URANIUM MINESSuperfund · 1.7 mi
- A & B CORPORATION ABANDONED URANIUM MINESSuperfund · 1.9 mi
- 03 098-11.95X10.89Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Huskon #1 MineMining · 2.3 mi
- Huskon #2 MineMining · 3.1 mi
- Huskon #3 MineMining · 3.2 mi
- 03 098-06.72X09.34Nitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cameron'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 Cameron.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Cameron
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cameron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cameron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cameron, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cameron — Superfund (5 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cameron
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 Cameron average
Your land is one point inside Cameron
Everything above resolves to Cameron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Cameron Average
Cameron Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cameron
- ●One soil character for all of Cameron
- ●Frost dates read at Cameron's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cameron's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cameron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cameron, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cameron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cameron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cameron average
How we know this about Cameron
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 Cameron’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 Cameron
When does frost risk typically end in Cameron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cameron typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Cameron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cameron typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cameron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cameron sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 27, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cameron?
The federal record around Cameron is a meaningful one — 44 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Cameron?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cameron's scale — its 8a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cameron'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 Cameron’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cameron's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,983 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cameron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cameron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 10 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cameron, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cameron's boundary and the 11,983 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cameron's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cameron's 11,983 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coconino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coconino 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 Coconino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cameron's 11,983 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cameron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,983 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Cameron-wide figureread your own land →