Red Mesa, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Red Mesa, 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 Mesa 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 Mesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Mesa — the short answer
Red Mesa, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Mesa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Mesa's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Mesa
Each reading below is measured for Red Mesa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Mesa runs about 206 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
MeasuredRed Mesa 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 Mesa is in
Red Mesa sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Red Mesa's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Apache County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Red Mesa
Every plant below cleared Red Mesa's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Mesa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Red Mesa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Mesa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09 020-07.28X02.55Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 09 020-06.45X00.25Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- IMMANUEL MISSION SCHOOLSuperfund · 2.2 mi
- 09 020-08.25X03.77Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 09 020-03.97X03.60Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 09 020-10.06X01.90Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- Red Mesa Copper PitMining · 4.0 mi
- (D-43-23)15cab- 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 09 020-03.52X07.28Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 09 019-13.61X01.70Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- 09 020-07.70X09.20Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- 09 021-01.53X00.87Nitrate · 8.8 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Mesa'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 Mesa.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Red Mesa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Mesa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Mesa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Red Mesa. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Red Mesa
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 Mesa average
Your land is one point inside Red Mesa
Everything above resolves to Red Mesa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Mesa Average
Red Mesa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Red Mesa
- ●One soil character for all of Red Mesa
- ●Frost dates read at Red Mesa's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Mesa's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Mesa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Mesa, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Mesa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Mesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Mesa average
How we know this about Red Mesa
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 Mesa’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 Mesa
When does frost risk typically end in Red Mesa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Mesa typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Red Mesa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Mesa typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Mesa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Mesa sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 18, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Mesa?
The federal record around Red Mesa is a meaningful one — 28 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Nitrate 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 Red Mesa?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Mesa's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Mesa'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 Mesa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red Mesa's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,220 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Mesa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Mesa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 1 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Mesa, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Mesa's boundary and the 8,220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Red Mesa sits in the Colorado Plateaus — 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 Mesa's 8,220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Apache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Apache 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 Apache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Mesa's 8,220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Mesa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Red Mesa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaRed Mesa sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides