Sierra Vista Southeast, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sierra Vista Southeast, 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 Sierra Vista Southeast 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 Sierra Vista Southeast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sierra Vista Southeast — the short answer
Sierra Vista Southeast, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 71K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 71K 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 Sierra Vista Southeast's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sierra Vista Southeast's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sierra Vista Southeast
Each reading below is measured for Sierra Vista Southeast itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSierra Vista Southeast runs about 277 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
MeasuredSierra Vista Southeast 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 Sierra Vista Southeast is in
Sierra Vista Southeast sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Sierra Vista Southeast's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Sierra Vista Southeast
Every plant below cleared Sierra Vista Southeast's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sierra Vista Southeast?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Sierra Vista Southeast
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sierra Vista Southeast checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 423 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sierra Vista Southeast
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sierra Vista Southeast. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CANYON GENERALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- D-22-21 33AAANitrate · 2.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2962Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- CHONS PAINTING AND BODYBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2973Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- White LilyMining · 2.7 mi
- D-23-20 01ACC2Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- PUEBLO DEL SOL WATER COMPANYPFAS · 3.4 mi
- BELLA VISTA CITY WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 3.4 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5918Brownfields · 3.6 mi
- D-22-20 35AAANitrate · 3.9 mi
- BERG HEATING & AIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sierra Vista Southeast'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 Sierra Vista Southeast.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Sierra Vista Southeast
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sierra Vista Southeast
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sierra Vista Southeast
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sierra Vista Southeast, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sierra Vista Southeast — Mining (53 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sierra Vista Southeast
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 Sierra Vista Southeast average
Your land is one point inside Sierra Vista Southeast
Everything above resolves to Sierra Vista Southeast as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 71K 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 Sierra Vista Southeast Average
Sierra Vista Southeast Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sierra Vista Southeast
- ●One soil character for all of Sierra Vista Southeast
- ●Frost dates read at Sierra Vista Southeast's scale: Feb 27 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sierra Vista Southeast's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sierra Vista Southeast
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sierra Vista Southeast, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sierra Vista Southeast averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sierra Vista Southeast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sierra Vista Southeast average
How we know this about Sierra Vista Southeast
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 Sierra Vista Southeast’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 Sierra Vista Southeast
When does frost risk typically end in Sierra Vista Southeast?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sierra Vista Southeast typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Sierra Vista Southeast?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sierra Vista Southeast typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sierra Vista Southeast?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sierra Vista Southeast sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 17, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sierra Vista Southeast?
The federal record around Sierra Vista Southeast runs heavier than most — 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sierra Vista Southeast?
From about Nov 1 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 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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sierra Vista Southeast's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sierra Vista Southeast'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 Sierra Vista Southeast’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sierra Vista Southeast's own scale — its own ~277-day season between 28°F freezes, the 70,851 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sierra Vista Southeast's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sierra Vista Southeast's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 27 and Dec 1 and the ~277-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sierra Vista Southeast, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sierra Vista Southeast's boundary and the 70,851 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sierra Vista Southeast's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sierra Vista Southeast 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 Sierra Vista Southeast's 70,851 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cochise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cochise 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 Cochise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sierra Vista Southeast's 70,851 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sierra Vista Southeast you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 70,851 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Sierra Vista Southeast-wide figureread your own land →