First Mesa, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in First Mesa, 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 First Mesa 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 First Mesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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First Mesa — the short answer
First Mesa, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 7a is First Mesa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against First Mesa's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in First Mesa
Each reading below is measured for First Mesa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFirst Mesa runs about 191 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFirst Mesa sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 First Mesa is in
First Mesa sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at First Mesa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navajo County.
What Grows in First Mesa
Every plant below cleared First Mesa's own zone 7a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in First Mesa?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near First Mesa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of First Mesa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06 094-06.75X11.30Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 06 094-06.78X11.28Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 06 094-06.79X11.26Nitrate · 2100 ft
- POLAC PDC1 0609407721170Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 06 094-07.75X11.70Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 06 094-06.92X12.67Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 6-1FSNitrate · 1.1 mi
- PolaccaPFAS · 2.2 mi
- 06 094-08.55X13.27Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Wepo Wash MW1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 06 094-08.95x12.85Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 06 094-04.73X13.82Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from First Mesa'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 First Mesa.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of First Mesa
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of First Mesa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around First Mesa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of First Mesa. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 First Mesa
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 First Mesa average
Your land is one point inside First Mesa
Everything above resolves to First Mesa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 First Mesa Average
First Mesa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across First Mesa
- ●One soil character for all of First Mesa
- ●Frost dates read at First Mesa's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not First Mesa's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in First Mesa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in First Mesa, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that First Mesa averages can't show:
We read public map data around First Mesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the First Mesa average
How we know this about First Mesa
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 First Mesa’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 First Mesa
When does frost risk typically end in First Mesa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in First Mesa typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in First Mesa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in First Mesa typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in First Mesa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, First Mesa sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 13, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in First Mesa?
The federal record around First Mesa shows 92 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in First Mesa?
From about Sep 27 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 Oct 27 (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 Oct 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at First Mesa's scale — its 7a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of First Mesa'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 First Mesa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at First Mesa's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,072 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- First Mesa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- First Mesa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 27 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near First Mesa, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- First Mesa's boundary and the 10,072 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at First Mesa's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so First Mesa's 10,072 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navajo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navajo 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 Navajo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among First Mesa's 10,072 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of First Mesa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,072 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 First Mesa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaFirst Mesa sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides