Paradise Valley, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Paradise Valley, 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 Paradise Valley 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 Paradise Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paradise Valley — the short answer
Paradise Valley, Arizona: USDA zone 10a, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- Maricopa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 26
- Maricopa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~345
- Maricopa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Maricopa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Paradise Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paradise Valley's 345-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paradise Valley
Each reading below is measured for Paradise Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParadise Valley runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from Maricopa County, the closest normal to Paradise Valley) — 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
MeasuredParadise Valley 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 Paradise Valley is in
Paradise Valley sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Paradise Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Maricopa County.
What Grows in Paradise Valley
Every plant below cleared Paradise Valley's own zone 10a and its 345-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paradise Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Paradise Valley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paradise Valley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 302 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paradise Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paradise Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRUCE MERRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PARADISE VALLEY COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- A-03-04 29DCDNitrate · 1.2 mi
- MARRIOTT CAMELBACK INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MARRIOTT CAMELBACK GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MOUNTAIN SHADOWS GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- A-03-04 34DBB2Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- TOWN OF PARADISE VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- JUDSON SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SCOTTSDALE THUNDERBIRD #142290Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GARDNERS TENNIS RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- A-02-04 10CBDNitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paradise Valley'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 Paradise Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paradise Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paradise Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Paradise Valley
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 Paradise Valley average
Your land is one point inside Paradise Valley
Everything above resolves to Paradise Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Maricopa 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 Paradise Valley Average
Paradise Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Paradise Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Paradise Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Paradise Valley's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paradise Valley's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paradise Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paradise Valley, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paradise Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paradise Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paradise Valley average
How we know this about Paradise Valley
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 Maricopa 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 Paradise Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Paradise Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paradise Valley typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Paradise Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paradise Valley typically arrives around Dec 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 12, so the watching starts about Nov 26 — about 345 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paradise Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paradise Valley sees about 345 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Dec 12, about 310 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paradise Valley?
The federal record around Paradise Valley runs heavier than most — 3,080 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,682), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Paradise Valley?
From about Nov 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paradise Valley's scale — its 10a band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paradise Valley'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 Paradise Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paradise Valley's own scale — the 9,843 acres it covers and 3,080 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paradise Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,080 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paradise Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paradise Valley's boundary and the 9,843 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~345-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paradise Valley's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paradise Valley checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Paradise Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Maricopa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paradise Valley's 9,843 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Maricopa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Maricopa 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 Maricopa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paradise Valley's 9,843 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paradise Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,843 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Paradise Valley-wide figureread your own land →