Sedona, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sedona, 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 Sedona 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 Sedona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sedona — the short answer
Sedona, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 12K 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 8b is Sedona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sedona's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Sedona's own 30-year record measures about 260 days between 28°F killing freezes — 53 days longer than Yavapai County's ~207. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Sedona's ~260-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sedona
Each reading below is measured for Sedona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSedona runs about 260 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSedona sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Sedona is in
Sedona sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Sedona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yavapai County.
What Grows in Sedona
Every plant below cleared Sedona's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sedona?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Sedona
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sedona checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 330 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sedona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sedona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUSTOM CLEANERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- GASHOPPER STOPPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- A-17-05 11DDDNitrate · 2000 ft
- WALGREEN #4065Brownfields · 2000 ft
- ARCO AM/PMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MAYAN TACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- A-17-05 12CCDNitrate · 2300 ft
- A-17-05 12DCCNitrate · 2300 ft
- A-17-05 14ABDNitrate · 2400 ft
- KAIZEN COLLISION CENTER - SEDONABrownfields · 2500 ft
- LATHAMS RED ROCK COLLISIONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VINCES AUTOBODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sedona'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 Sedona.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sedona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sedona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sedona, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sedona — Nitrate (142 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sedona
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 Sedona average
Your land is one point inside Sedona
Everything above resolves to Sedona as a whole — and this is a city whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 city 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 Sedona Average
Sedona Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sedona
- ●One soil character for all of Sedona
- ●Frost dates read at Sedona's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sedona's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sedona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sedona, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sedona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sedona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sedona average
How we know this about Sedona
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Sedona’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Sedona
When does frost risk typically end in Sedona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sedona typically lands around Mar 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Sedona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sedona typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sedona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sedona sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 10, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sedona?
The federal record around Sedona shows 195 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (142), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Sedona?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sedona's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sedona'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 Sedona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sedona's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,688 acres it covers and 195 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sedona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sedona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 24 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sedona, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sedona's boundary and the 11,688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sedona's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sedona checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sedona's 11,688 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yavapai County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yavapai 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 Yavapai County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sedona's 11,688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sedona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,688 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Sedona-wide figureread your own land →