Catalina, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Catalina, 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 Catalina 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 Catalina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Catalina — the short answer
Catalina, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 309 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~309
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 9a is Catalina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catalina's 309-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Catalina
Each reading below is measured for Catalina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCatalina runs about 309 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
MeasuredCatalina sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Catalina is in
Catalina sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Catalina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pima County.
What Grows in Catalina
Every plant below cleared Catalina's own zone 9a and its 309-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Catalina?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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 Catalina
Survey cells within 31 miles of Catalina checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 367 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Catalina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Catalina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-11-14 10DAB2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- CLYDE M SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MINIT MARKET #17Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QUIK MART #26Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ADJC - CATALINA MOUNTAIN JUVENILE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CIRCLE K STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #795Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- D-11-14 04CCANitrate · 1.8 mi
- NORM'S AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- D-11-14 04ABCNitrate · 2.2 mi
- RULAJA ARAHANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- D-11-14 04BBDNitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catalina'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 Catalina.
Total Sites
169
within ~10 miles of Catalina
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Catalina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Catalina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Catalina, Mining runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Catalina. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Catalina
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 Catalina average
Your land is one point inside Catalina
Everything above resolves to Catalina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Catalina Average
Catalina Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Catalina
- ●One soil character for all of Catalina
- ●Frost dates read at Catalina's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catalina's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Catalina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catalina, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catalina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catalina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catalina average
How we know this about Catalina
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 Catalina’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 Catalina
When does frost risk typically end in Catalina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catalina typically lands around Feb 4, 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 Feb 25.
When is the first frost in Catalina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Catalina typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 309 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Catalina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catalina sees about 309 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 26, about 274 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catalina?
The federal record around Catalina runs heavier than most — 169 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (63), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Catalina?
From about Nov 10 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 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 Dec 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Catalina's scale — its 9a band and its 309-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catalina'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 Catalina’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Catalina's own scale — its own ~309-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,050 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catalina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Catalina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 4 and Dec 10 and the ~309-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Catalina, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Catalina's boundary and the 9,050 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~309-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Catalina's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Catalina 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 Catalina's 9,050 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pima 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 Pima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Catalina's 9,050 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Catalina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,050 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Catalina-wide figureread your own land →