Donovan Estates, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect palo verde, citrus, jalapeno, and date palm to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Donovan Estates, 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 Donovan Estates 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 Donovan Estates — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Donovan Estates — the short answer
Donovan Estates, Arizona: USDA zone 10a, about 316 days between hard freezes, across 81 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Yuma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Yuma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~316
- Yuma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 81 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Yuma County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Donovan Estates's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Donovan Estates's 316-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Donovan Estates
Each reading below is measured for Donovan Estates itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDonovan Estates runs about 316 days between hard freezes (read from Yuma County, the closest normal to Donovan Estates) — 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
MeasuredDonovan Estates sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Donovan Estates is in
Donovan Estates sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Donovan Estates's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yuma County.
What Grows in Donovan Estates
Plants matched to Donovan Estates's USDA zones 10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Donovan Estates?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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 Donovan Estates
Survey cells within 31 miles of Donovan Estates checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 148 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Donovan Estates
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Donovan Estates. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL THACKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RANCHO VIEJO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHAY'S MART & SELF SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #9187Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- VALLEY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CRANE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 82323Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CIRCLE K #2700212Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BRITAIN & SONS FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- YUMA, CITY OF - FIGUEROA AVE WPCFBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- BILLS TRACTOR AND AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SOUTHERN SANITATION UNCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Donovan Estates'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 Donovan Estates.
Total Sites
521
within ~10 miles of Donovan Estates
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Donovan Estates
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Donovan Estates
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Donovan Estates, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Donovan Estates — Superfund (9 sites) and Nitrate (146 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Donovan Estates
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 Donovan Estates average
Your land is one point inside Donovan Estates
Everything above resolves to Donovan Estates as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 81 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yuma County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Donovan Estates Average
Donovan Estates Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Donovan Estates
- ●One soil character for all of Donovan Estates
- ●Frost dates read at Donovan Estates's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Donovan Estates's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Donovan Estates
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Donovan Estates, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Donovan Estates averages can't show:
We read public map data around Donovan Estates — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Donovan Estates average
How we know this about Donovan Estates
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 Yuma County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Donovan Estates
When does frost risk typically end in Donovan Estates?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Donovan Estates typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Donovan Estates?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Donovan Estates typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 316 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Donovan Estates?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Donovan Estates sees about 316 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 27, about 281 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Donovan Estates?
The federal record around Donovan Estates is a meaningful one — 521 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (255), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Donovan Estates?
From about Nov 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 Dec 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Donovan Estates's scale — its 10a band and its 316-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Donovan Estates'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 Donovan Estates’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Donovan Estates's own scale — the 81 acres it covers and 521 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Donovan Estates's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 521 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Donovan Estates, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Donovan Estates's boundary and the 81 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Donovan Estates's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Donovan Estates checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Donovan Estates has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yuma County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Donovan Estates's 81 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yuma County
- The candidate plant list — Arizona's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Arizona
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yuma 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 Yuma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Donovan Estates's 81 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Donovan Estates you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 81 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Donovan Estates-wide figureread your own land →
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