St. Michaels, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in St. Michaels, 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 St. Michaels 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 St. Michaels — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. Michaels — the short answer
St. Michaels, Arizona: USDA zone 6a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6a is St. Michaels's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Michaels's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. Michaels
Each reading below is measured for St. Michaels itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. Michaels runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSt. Michaels sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 St. Michaels is in
St. Michaels sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at St. Michaels's own centroid rather than borrowed from Apache County.
What Grows in St. Michaels
Every plant below cleared St. Michaels's own zone 6a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. Michaels?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near St. Michaels
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. Michaels. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 18 108-05.51X06.46Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 18 108-05.43X06.53Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 18 108-05.95X06.80Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 18 108-04.47X06.34Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 18 108-05.35X07.11Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 18 108-04.50X06.90Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 18 108-04.23X06.05Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- NAVAJO COMMUNICATIONS COBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 18 108-04.13X06.12Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 18 108-05.35X04.85Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 18 108-04.12X05.28Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 18 108-03.90X06.90Nitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Michaels'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 St. Michaels.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of St. Michaels
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. Michaels
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. Michaels
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. Michaels, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of St. Michaels — Nitrate (88 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in St. Michaels
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 St. Michaels average
Your land is one point inside St. Michaels
Everything above resolves to St. Michaels as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 St. Michaels Average
St. Michaels Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across St. Michaels
- ●One soil character for all of St. Michaels
- ●Frost dates read at St. Michaels's scale: May 13 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Michaels's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. Michaels
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Michaels, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Michaels averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Michaels — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Michaels average
How we know this about St. Michaels
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 St. Michaels’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 St. Michaels
When does frost risk typically end in St. Michaels?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Michaels typically lands around May 13, 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 Jun 3.
When is the first frost in St. Michaels?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. Michaels typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. Michaels?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Michaels sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 25, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. Michaels?
The federal record around St. Michaels is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in St. Michaels?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, St. Michaels rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at St. Michaels's scale — its 6a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Michaels'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 St. Michaels’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at St. Michaels's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,444 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Michaels's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. Michaels's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Oct 9 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. Michaels, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. Michaels's boundary and the 2,444 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. Michaels'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 St. Michaels's 2,444 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 St. Michaels's 2,444 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. Michaels you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,444 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 St. Michaels-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaSt. Michaels sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides