Paulden, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Paulden, 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 Paulden 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 Paulden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paulden — the short answer
Paulden, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 37K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 37K 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 Paulden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paulden's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paulden
Each reading below is measured for Paulden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaulden runs about 221 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
MeasuredPaulden 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 Paulden is in
Paulden sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Paulden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yavapai County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Paulden
Every plant below cleared Paulden's own zone 8a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paulden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Paulden
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paulden checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 294 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paulden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paulden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B-17-02 04AAANitrate · 1.3 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10273Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- PAULDEN MINI MART & RV PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- B-17-02 09DBANitrate · 1.6 mi
- B-18-02 29DACNitrate · 1.7 mi
- B-17-02 09DDD2Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- B-17-02 10CAC1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- B-18-02 27CDANitrate · 2.3 mi
- B-18-02 27CBANitrate · 2.4 mi
- B-18-02 28BABNitrate · 2.4 mi
- B-18-02 28ABA [Paulden North]Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- B-18-02 28AAB1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paulden'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 Paulden.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Paulden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paulden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paulden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paulden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paulden — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Paulden
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 Paulden average
Your land is one point inside Paulden
Everything above resolves to Paulden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 37K 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 Paulden Average
Paulden Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Paulden
- ●One soil character for all of Paulden
- ●Frost dates read at Paulden's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paulden's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paulden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paulden, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paulden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paulden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paulden average
How we know this about Paulden
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 Paulden’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 Paulden
When does frost risk typically end in Paulden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paulden typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Paulden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paulden typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paulden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paulden sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 24, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paulden?
The federal record around Paulden is a meaningful one — 104 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Paulden?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paulden's scale — its 8a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paulden'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 Paulden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paulden's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 36,687 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paulden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paulden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 7 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paulden, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paulden's boundary and the 36,687 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Paulden sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paulden 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 Paulden's 36,687 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 Paulden's 36,687 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paulden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 36,687 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Paulden-wide figureread your own land →
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