Parker, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Parker, 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 Parker 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 Parker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Parker — the short answer
Parker, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 29
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~345
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 La Paz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Parker's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parker's 345-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parker
Each reading below is measured for Parker itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParker runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from La Paz County, the closest normal to Parker) — 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
MeasuredParker sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Parker is in
Parker sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Parker's own centroid rather than borrowed from La Paz County.
What Grows in Parker
Every plant below cleared Parker's own zone 9b and its 345-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parker?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Parker
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parker. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENVIRONMENTAL WASTE SOLUTIONS INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- B-08-19 05BBB1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Owens MineMining · 5.5 mi
- B-09-19 18CCB1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- B-09-19 18BCB1Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- SIEMENS WATER TECHNOLOGIES CORPToxics Release Inventory · 7.2 mi
- DESOTEC FRMLY EVOQUA WATER TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 7.2 mi
- DESOTEC FRMLY EVOQUA WATER TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 7.2 mi
- B-09-20 14CDD1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- B-09-19 05DDD1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- DAYTON SUPERIORBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- DAYTON SUPERIORToxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parker'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 Parker.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Parker
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parker
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parker
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parker, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Parker — Mining (33 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Parker
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 Parker average
Your land is one point inside Parker
Everything above resolves to Parker as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 14K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from La Paz 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 Parker Average
Parker Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Parker
- ●One soil character for all of Parker
- ●Frost dates read at Parker's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parker's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parker
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parker, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parker averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parker average
How we know this about Parker
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 La Paz 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 Parker
When does frost risk typically end in Parker?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parker typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Parker?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parker typically arrives around Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 15, so the watching starts about Nov 29 — about 345 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parker?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parker sees about 345 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 15, about 310 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parker?
The federal record around Parker shows 89 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (33), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.3 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 Parker?
From about Nov 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parker's scale — its 9b band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parker'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 Parker’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Parker's own scale — the 14,065 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parker's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parker, the closest Brownfields record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parker's boundary and the 14,065 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~345-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parker's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Parker has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom La Paz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parker's 14,065 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom La Paz County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom La Paz 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 La Paz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parker's 14,065 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parker you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,065 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.3 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 Parker-wide figureread your own land →