Red Lake, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Red Lake, 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 Red Lake 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 Red Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Lake — the short answer
Red Lake, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 19K 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 7a is Red Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Lake's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Lake
Each reading below is measured for Red Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Lake runs about 171 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRed Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Red Lake is in
Red Lake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Red Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Coconino County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Red Lake
Every plant below cleared Red Lake's own zone 7a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Red Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIGH COUNTRY MERCANTILE-RED LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GRAND CANYON KOAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- AJ'S MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- ANGEL'S CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CITY OF WILLIAMS - AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- GRAND CANYON RAILWAY LLCBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- TUBA CITY FLEET MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- WILLIAMS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- CITY OF WILLIAMS - SHOP FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- LOVES TRAVEL STOPS & COUNTRY STORES-WILLIAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- PERRIN RANCH WIND ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 7.0 mi
- A-22-02 28ACDNitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Lake'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 Red Lake.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Red Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Lake, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Red Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Red Lake
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 Red Lake average
Your land is one point inside Red Lake
Everything above resolves to Red Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 19K 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 Red Lake Average
Red Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Red Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Red Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Red Lake's scale: May 2 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Lake, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Lake average
How we know this about Red Lake
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 Red Lake’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 Red Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Red Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lake typically lands around May 2, 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 May 23.
When is the first frost in Red Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lake typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Lake sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 6, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Lake?
The federal record around Red Lake shows 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Red Lake?
From about Sep 20 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 Oct 20 (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 Oct 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Lake'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 Red Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red Lake's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 19,165 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 20 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Lake's boundary and the 19,165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Red Lake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red Lake's 19,165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coconino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coconino 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 Coconino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Lake's 19,165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Red Lake-wide figureread your own land →