Central Heights-Midland City, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Central Heights-Midland City, 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 Central Heights-Midland City 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 Central Heights-Midland City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Central Heights-Midland City — the short answer
Central Heights-Midland City, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Central Heights-Midland City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Central Heights-Midland City's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Central Heights-Midland City
Each reading below is measured for Central Heights-Midland City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCentral Heights-Midland City runs about 302 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
MeasuredCentral Heights-Midland City 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 Central Heights-Midland City is in
Central Heights-Midland City sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Central Heights-Midland City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Central Heights-Midland City
Every plant below cleared Central Heights-Midland City's own zone 9a and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Central Heights-Midland City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Central Heights-Midland City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Central Heights-Midland City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 368 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Central Heights-Midland City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Central Heights-Midland City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B J CECIL TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- B J CECIL TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MUSTANG #6903Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GILA MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DAVE'S FAST STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CIRCLE K #2700689Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LONG TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AMERICAN OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HEALY AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PADGETT'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FRYS FUEL CENTER #109Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GAS N GO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Central Heights-Midland City'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 Central Heights-Midland City.
Total Sites
296
within ~10 miles of Central Heights-Midland City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Central Heights-Midland City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Central Heights-Midland City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Central Heights-Midland City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Central Heights-Midland City — Mining (171 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Central Heights-Midland City
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 Central Heights-Midland City average
Your land is one point inside Central Heights-Midland City
Everything above resolves to Central Heights-Midland City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Central Heights-Midland City Average
Central Heights-Midland City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Central Heights-Midland City
- ●One soil character for all of Central Heights-Midland City
- ●Frost dates read at Central Heights-Midland City's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Central Heights-Midland City's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Central Heights-Midland City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Central Heights-Midland City, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Central Heights-Midland City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Central Heights-Midland City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Central Heights-Midland City average
How we know this about Central Heights-Midland City
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 Central Heights-Midland City’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 Central Heights-Midland City
When does frost risk typically end in Central Heights-Midland City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Central Heights-Midland City typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Central Heights-Midland City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Central Heights-Midland City typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Central Heights-Midland City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Central Heights-Midland City sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 22, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Central Heights-Midland City?
The federal record around Central Heights-Midland City runs heavier than most — 296 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (171), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Central Heights-Midland City?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Central Heights-Midland City's scale — its 9a band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Central Heights-Midland City'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 Central Heights-Midland City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Central Heights-Midland City's own scale — its own ~302-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,242 acres it covers and 296 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Central Heights-Midland City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Central Heights-Midland City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 7 and Dec 6 and the ~302-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 296 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Central Heights-Midland City, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Central Heights-Midland City's boundary and the 1,242 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Central Heights-Midland City's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Central Heights-Midland City 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 Central Heights-Midland City's 1,242 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 Central Heights-Midland City's 1,242 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Central Heights-Midland City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,242 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Central Heights-Midland City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaCentral Heights-Midland City sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides