Lake Montezuma, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Montezuma, 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 Lake Montezuma 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 Lake Montezuma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Montezuma — the short answer
Lake Montezuma, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 8a is Lake Montezuma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Montezuma's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Montezuma
Each reading below is measured for Lake Montezuma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Montezuma runs about 249 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredLake Montezuma sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Lake Montezuma is in
Lake Montezuma sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Lake Montezuma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yavapai County.
What Grows in Lake Montezuma
Every plant below cleared Lake Montezuma's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Montezuma?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Lake Montezuma
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lake Montezuma checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 325 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Montezuma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Montezuma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6880Brownfields · 2200 ft
- A-14-05 02BBANitrate · 2600 ft
- A-14-05 02BADNitrate · 0.6 mi
- MCGUIREVILLE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BEAVER HOLLOW MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- A-14-05 04AAANitrate · 1.0 mi
- BEAVER CREEK GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- A-15-05 35ACCNitrate · 1.2 mi
- A-15-05 36CCB3Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- A-15-05 36CCB2Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- A-14-05 01BCDNitrate · 1.4 mi
- KLEILOCK ENVIRONMENTAL LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Montezuma'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 Lake Montezuma.
Total Sites
322
within ~10 miles of Lake Montezuma
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Montezuma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Montezuma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Montezuma, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 266 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Montezuma. 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 Lake Montezuma
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 Lake Montezuma average
Your land is one point inside Lake Montezuma
Everything above resolves to Lake Montezuma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Lake Montezuma Average
Lake Montezuma Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lake Montezuma
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Montezuma
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Montezuma's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Montezuma's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Montezuma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Montezuma, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Montezuma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Montezuma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Montezuma average
How we know this about Lake Montezuma
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 Lake Montezuma’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 Lake Montezuma
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Montezuma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Montezuma typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Lake Montezuma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Montezuma typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Montezuma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Montezuma sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Oct 31, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Montezuma?
The federal record around Lake Montezuma is a meaningful one — 322 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (266), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Lake Montezuma?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Montezuma's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Montezuma'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 Lake Montezuma’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Montezuma's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,379 acres it covers and 322 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Montezuma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Montezuma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 14 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 322 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Montezuma, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Montezuma's boundary and the 7,379 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Montezuma's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lake Montezuma 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 Lake Montezuma's 7,379 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yavapai County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yavapai 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 Yavapai County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Montezuma's 7,379 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Montezuma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,379 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Lake Montezuma-wide figureread your own land →