Rock House, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rock House, 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 Rock House 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 Rock House — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rock House — the short answer
Rock House, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 389 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Gila County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Gila County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~295
- Gila County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 389 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 Gila County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Rock House's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rock House's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rock House
Each reading below is measured for Rock House itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRock House runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Gila County, the closest normal to Rock House) — 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
MeasuredRock House 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 Rock House is in
Rock House sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rock House's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Gila County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rock House
Every plant below cleared Rock House's own zone 9b and its 295-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rock House?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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.
Documented around Rock House
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rock House checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 361 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rock House
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rock House. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 80437Nitrate · 950 ft
- ROCK HOUSE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 80291Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 80290Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- PINTO CREEK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 80292Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- SPRING CREEK STORE #13Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Jackie 1-4Mining · 5.2 mi
- Red Bluff ProspectMining · 6.8 mi
- 80436Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- Gold Dike ClaimsMining · 8.5 mi
- Zimmerman-Asbestos Point ClaimsMining · 8.7 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rock House'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 Rock House.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rock House
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rock House
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Rock House
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 Rock House average
Your land is one point inside Rock House
Everything above resolves to Rock House as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 389 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gila 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 Rock House Average
Rock House Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Rock House
- ●One soil character for all of Rock House
- ●Frost dates read at Rock House's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rock House's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rock House
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rock House, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rock House averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rock House — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rock House average
How we know this about Rock House
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 Gila 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 Rock House
When does frost risk typically end in Rock House?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rock House typically lands around Feb 12, 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 Mar 5.
When is the first frost in Rock House?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rock House typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 295 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rock House?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rock House sees about 295 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 20, about 260 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rock House?
The federal record around Rock House shows 18 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Rock House?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rock House's scale — its 9b band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rock House'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 Rock House’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rock House's own scale — the 389 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rock House's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rock House, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rock House's boundary and the 389 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~295-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rock House sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rock House checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rock House has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gila County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rock House's 389 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rock House's 389 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rock House you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 389 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Rock House-wide figureread your own land →
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