Copper Hill, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Copper Hill, 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 Copper Hill 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 Copper Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Copper Hill — the short answer
Copper Hill, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Copper Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Copper Hill's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Copper Hill
Each reading below is measured for Copper Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCopper Hill runs about 287 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
MeasuredCopper Hill 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 Copper Hill is in
Copper Hill sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Copper Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Copper Hill
Every plant below cleared Copper Hill's own zone 9a and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Copper Hill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Copper Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Copper Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 372 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Copper Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Copper Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alex ClaimsMining · 1000 ft
- Iron King & Red Oxide MineMining · 2100 ft
- Sue PropertyMining · 2300 ft
- Black Oxide Patent M S 2297Mining · 0.6 mi
- Superior and Boston ClaimsMining · 0.6 mi
- Superior and Boston MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Arizona Commercial MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Pontiac MineMining · 0.8 mi
- Buckeye ShaftMining · 1.0 mi
- BeaconMining · 1.0 mi
- Buckeye MineMining · 1.1 mi
- Iron Cap MineMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Copper Hill'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 Copper Hill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Copper Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Copper Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Copper Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Copper Hill — Mining (125 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 Copper Hill
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 Copper Hill average
Your land is one point inside Copper Hill
Everything above resolves to Copper Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Copper Hill Average
Copper Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Copper Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Copper Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Copper Hill's scale: Feb 15 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Copper Hill's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Copper Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Copper Hill, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Copper Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Copper Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Copper Hill average
How we know this about Copper Hill
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 Copper Hill’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 Copper Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Copper Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Copper Hill typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Copper Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Copper Hill typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Copper Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Copper Hill sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 15, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Copper Hill?
The federal record around Copper Hill runs heavier than most — 239 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (125), the nearest Mining record about 0.2 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 Copper Hill?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Copper Hill's scale — its 9a band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Copper Hill'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 Copper Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Copper Hill's own scale — its own ~287-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,707 acres it covers and 239 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Copper Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Copper Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 15 and Nov 29 and the ~287-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 239 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Copper Hill, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Copper Hill's boundary and the 4,707 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Copper Hill's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Copper Hill 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 Copper Hill's 4,707 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 Copper Hill's 4,707 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Copper Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,707 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.2 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 Copper Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaCopper Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides