Rough Rock, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rough Rock, 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 Rough Rock 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 Rough Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rough Rock — the short answer
Rough Rock, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~200
- 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 Rough Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rough Rock's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rough Rock
Each reading below is measured for Rough Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRough Rock runs about 200 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
MeasuredRough Rock 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 Rough Rock is in
Rough Rock sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rough Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Apache County.
What Grows in Rough Rock
Every plant below cleared Rough Rock's own zone 7a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rough Rock?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Rough Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rough Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10 054-06.66X06.18Nitrate · 550 ft
- 10 054-06.80X06.35Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 10 054-06.81X06.09Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 10 054-06.92X06.33Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 10 054-06.30X06.52 Rough Rock PM5Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 10 054-06.95X06.06Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 10 054-06.09X06.12Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 08 054-06.82X02.39Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 08 054-09.63X01.28Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 04 054-10.21X10.84Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 10 054-01.47X09.39 [10R-111 ROUGH ROCK]Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 10 054-01.41X01.85 [10R-119 ROUGH ROCK]Nitrate · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rough Rock'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 Rough Rock.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rough Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rough Rock, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Rough Rock. 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 Rough Rock
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 Rough Rock average
Your land is one point inside Rough Rock
Everything above resolves to Rough Rock 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 Rough Rock Average
Rough Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rough Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Rough Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Rough Rock's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rough Rock's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rough Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rough Rock, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rough Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rough Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rough Rock average
How we know this about Rough Rock
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 Rough Rock’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 Rough Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Rough Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rough Rock typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Rough Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rough Rock 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rough Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rough Rock sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 18, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rough Rock?
The federal record around Rough Rock is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rough Rock?
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 Rough Rock's scale — its 7a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rough Rock'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 Rough Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rough Rock's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,159 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rough Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rough Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 1 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rough Rock, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rough Rock's boundary and the 8,159 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rough Rock's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rough Rock's 8,159 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 Rough Rock's 8,159 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rough Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,159 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Rough Rock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaRough Rock sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides