Dolan Springs, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dolan Springs, 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 Dolan Springs 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 Dolan Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dolan Springs — the short answer
Dolan Springs, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 37K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 37K 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 Dolan Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dolan Springs's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dolan Springs
Each reading below is measured for Dolan Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDolan Springs runs about 291 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
MeasuredDolan Springs 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 Dolan Springs is in
Dolan Springs sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Dolan Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mohave County.
What Grows in Dolan Springs
Every plant below cleared Dolan Springs's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dolan Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Dolan Springs
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dolan Springs checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 236 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dolan Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dolan Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7935Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- GARY'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- B-26-19 36CCB2Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- B-25-19 01BBCNitrate · 0.8 mi
- MOUNT TIPTON SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- VACANT GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- B-25-19 20ACBNitrate · 4.4 mi
- B-25-19 19DCANitrate · 5.3 mi
- A-1 AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- DOLAN SPRINGS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- B-26-18 09CCB2Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- B-25-20 15AAANitrate · 6.7 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dolan Springs'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 Dolan Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dolan Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dolan Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dolan Springs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Dolan Springs. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Dolan Springs
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 Dolan Springs average
Your land is one point inside Dolan Springs
Everything above resolves to Dolan Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 37K 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 Dolan Springs Average
Dolan Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dolan Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Dolan Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Dolan Springs's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dolan Springs's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dolan Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dolan Springs, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dolan Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dolan Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dolan Springs average
How we know this about Dolan Springs
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 Dolan Springs’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 Dolan Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Dolan Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dolan Springs typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Dolan Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dolan Springs typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dolan Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dolan Springs sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 20, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dolan Springs?
The federal record around Dolan Springs is light — 26 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dolan Springs?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dolan Springs's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dolan Springs'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 Dolan Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dolan Springs's own scale — its own ~291-day season between 28°F freezes, the 37,200 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dolan Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dolan Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 16 and Dec 4 and the ~291-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dolan Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dolan Springs's boundary and the 37,200 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dolan Springs's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dolan Springs 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 Dolan Springs's 37,200 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mohave County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mohave 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 Mohave County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dolan Springs's 37,200 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dolan Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 37,200 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Dolan Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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