Second Mesa, 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 Second 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 Second 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 Second Mesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Second Mesa — the short answer
Second Mesa, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 26K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 26K 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 Second Mesa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Second Mesa's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Second Mesa
Each reading below is measured for Second Mesa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSecond Mesa runs about 194 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
MeasuredSecond 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 Second Mesa is in
Second Mesa sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Second Mesa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navajo County.
What Grows in Second Mesa
Every plant below cleared Second Mesa's own zone 7a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Second Mesa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Second Mesa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Second Mesa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06 095-01.53X10.75Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 06-094-13.72 X 13.27Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- SBM 0609412731329Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- Windmill 62B1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 06 095-01.65X13.35Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 06 095-00.01X14.05 Second Mesa PM2Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 06 094-13.83X14.13Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 06 095-00.38X14.13Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 06 094-12.72X06.41Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- S M PD&C 1 0609500011404Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 06 095-03.85X09.21Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 06 094-09.82X11.56Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Second 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 Second Mesa.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Second Mesa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Second Mesa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 84 sites within ~10 miles of Second 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 Second 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 Second Mesa average
Your land is one point inside Second Mesa
Everything above resolves to Second Mesa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 26K 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 Second Mesa Average
Second Mesa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Second Mesa
- ●One soil character for all of Second Mesa
- ●Frost dates read at Second Mesa's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Second Mesa's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Second Mesa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Second Mesa, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Second Mesa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Second Mesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Second Mesa average
How we know this about Second 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 Second 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 Second Mesa
When does frost risk typically end in Second Mesa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Second Mesa typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Second Mesa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Second Mesa typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Second Mesa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Second Mesa sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 16, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Second Mesa?
The federal record around Second Mesa shows 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.7 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 Second Mesa?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Second Mesa's scale — its 7a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Second 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 Second Mesa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Second Mesa's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,679 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Second Mesa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Second Mesa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 30 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Second Mesa, the closest Nitrate record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Second Mesa's boundary and the 25,679 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Second Mesa'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 Second Mesa's 25,679 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navajo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navajo 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 Navajo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Second Mesa's 25,679 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Second 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 25,679 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.7 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 Second Mesa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaSecond Mesa sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides