Katherine, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: palo verde, citrus, jalapeno, and date palm. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Katherine, 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 Katherine 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 Katherine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Katherine — the short answer
Katherine, Arizona: USDA zone 10a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Mohave County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Katherine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Katherine's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Katherine
Each reading below is measured for Katherine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKatherine runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Mohave County, the closest normal to Katherine) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKatherine 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 Katherine is in
Katherine sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Katherine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mohave County.
What Grows in Katherine
Plants matched to Katherine'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 Katherine?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Katherine
Survey cells within 31 miles of Katherine checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 207 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Katherine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Katherine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE MOHAVE RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Katherine MineMining · 1.0 mi
- BUREAU OF RECLAMATION DAVIS DAMToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- USDOI BR - DAVIS DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- USDOI BR - DAVIS DAMBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- WARM SPRINGS RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SR EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- GAS-N-GRUB VIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BULLHEAD CITY HOT MIX ASPHALT PLANTBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- SAM'S CLUB #4915Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- LAUGHLIN TRANSIT MAINTENANCE FACILITYBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- RIVERSIDE HOTEL POOL & LOUNGE REMODELBrownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Katherine'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 Katherine.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Katherine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Katherine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Katherine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Katherine, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Katherine. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Katherine
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 Katherine average
Your land is one point inside Katherine
Everything above resolves to Katherine as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mohave 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 Katherine Average
Katherine Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Katherine
- ●One soil character for all of Katherine
- ●Frost dates read at Katherine's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Katherine's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Katherine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Katherine, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Katherine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Katherine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Katherine average
How we know this about Katherine
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 Mohave 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 Katherine
When does frost risk typically end in Katherine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Katherine typically lands around Mar 21, 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 Apr 11.
When is the first frost in Katherine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Katherine typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Katherine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Katherine sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Katherine?
The federal record around Katherine is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Katherine?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Katherine's scale — its 10a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Katherine'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 Katherine’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Katherine's own scale — the 2,419 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Katherine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Katherine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Katherine's boundary and the 2,419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Katherine's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Katherine checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Katherine has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mohave County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Katherine's 2,419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mohave 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 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 Katherine's 2,419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Katherine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,419 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Katherine-wide figureread your own land →
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