Parker Strip, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Parker Strip, 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 Strip 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 Strip — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Parker Strip — the short answer
Parker Strip, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 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 La Paz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Parker Strip's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parker Strip'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 Strip
Each reading below is measured for Parker Strip itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParker Strip runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from La Paz County, the closest normal to Parker Strip) — 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 Strip 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 Strip is in
Parker Strip sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Parker Strip's own centroid rather than borrowed from La Paz County.
What Grows in Parker Strip
Every plant below cleared Parker Strip'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 Strip?
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 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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Parker Strip
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parker Strip. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GENE PUMPING AND INTAKE PLANTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- USDOE WAPA PARKER SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LIL MIKE'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MC'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CASTLE ROCK SHORES TRAILER PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RIVER ISLAND MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Black Metal Copper MineMining · 1.5 mi
- PARKER DAMSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- HAVASU SPRINGS RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Gold ZoneMining · 1.8 mi
- PARKER DAM - BUREAU OF RECLAMATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- Gold Zone MineMining · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parker Strip'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 Strip.
Total Sites
152
within ~10 miles of Parker Strip
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parker Strip
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parker Strip
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parker Strip, Mining runs higher than the national average — 103 sites within ~10 miles of Parker Strip. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Parker Strip
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 Strip average
Your land is one point inside Parker Strip
Everything above resolves to Parker Strip as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 Strip Average
Parker Strip Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Parker Strip
- ●One soil character for all of Parker Strip
- ●Frost dates read at Parker Strip's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parker Strip's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parker Strip
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parker Strip, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parker Strip averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parker Strip — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parker Strip average
How we know this about Parker Strip
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 Strip
When does frost risk typically end in Parker Strip?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parker Strip 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 Strip?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parker Strip 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 Strip?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parker Strip 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 Strip?
The federal record around Parker Strip is a meaningful one — 152 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (103), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Parker Strip?
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 Strip's scale — its 9b band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parker Strip'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 Strip’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Parker Strip's own scale — the 2,002 acres it covers and 152 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parker Strip's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parker Strip, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parker Strip's boundary and the 2,002 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 Strip's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Parker Strip 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 Strip's 2,002 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 Strip's 2,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parker Strip you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Strip-wide figureread your own land →
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