Sweet Water Village, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sweet Water Village, 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 Sweet Water Village 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 Sweet Water Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sweet Water Village — the short answer
Sweet Water Village, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 327 days between hard freezes, across 512 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 23
- Pinal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Pinal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~327
- Pinal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 512 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Pinal County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Sweet Water Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sweet Water Village's 327-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sweet Water Village
Each reading below is measured for Sweet Water Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSweet Water Village runs about 327 days between hard freezes (read from Pinal County, the closest normal to Sweet Water Village) — 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
MeasuredSweet Water Village sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Sweet Water Village is in
Sweet Water Village sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sweet Water Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pinal County.
What Grows in Sweet Water Village
Every plant below cleared Sweet Water Village's own zone 9b and its 327-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sweet Water Village?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Sweet Water Village
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sweet Water Village checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 309 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sweet Water Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sweet Water Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-03-05 28CBBNitrate · 1.8 mi
- D-03-05 32ABCNitrate · 1.8 mi
- SACATONToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- HANSON AGGREGATES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- CEMEX - SAN TAN PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- SAN TAN HMA PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- D-04-05 06ABBNitrate · 2.6 mi
- D-03-05 29BCBNitrate · 2.6 mi
- D-03-05 24ABDNitrate · 3.6 mi
- D-03-06 31ABANitrate · 3.6 mi
- D-03-04 25DCBNitrate · 3.8 mi
- WILBUR-ELLIS COMPANY, SACATONBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sweet Water Village'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 Sweet Water Village.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Sweet Water Village
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sweet Water Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sweet Water Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sweet Water Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sweet Water Village — Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites) and Nitrate (48 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sweet Water Village
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 Sweet Water Village average
Your land is one point inside Sweet Water Village
Everything above resolves to Sweet Water Village as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 512 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pinal County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Sweet Water Village Average
Sweet Water Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sweet Water Village
- ●One soil character for all of Sweet Water Village
- ●Frost dates read at Sweet Water Village's scale: Jan 23 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sweet Water Village's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sweet Water Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sweet Water Village, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sweet Water Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sweet Water Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sweet Water Village average
How we know this about Sweet Water Village
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 Pinal County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Sweet Water Village
When does frost risk typically end in Sweet Water Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sweet Water Village typically lands around Jan 23, 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 Feb 13.
When is the first frost in Sweet Water Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sweet Water Village typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 327 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sweet Water Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sweet Water Village sees about 327 frost-free days — roughly Jan 23 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 13 to Dec 2, about 292 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sweet Water Village?
The federal record around Sweet Water Village is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 I protect my plants from frost in Sweet Water Village?
From about Nov 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sweet Water Village's scale — its 9b band and its 327-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sweet Water Village'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 Sweet Water Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sweet Water Village's own scale — the 512 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sweet Water Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sweet Water Village, the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sweet Water Village's boundary and the 512 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~327-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sweet Water Village's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sweet Water Village checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sweet Water Village has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pinal County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sweet Water Village's 512 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pinal County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pinal 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 Pinal County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sweet Water Village's 512 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sweet Water Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 512 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Sweet Water Village-wide figureread your own land →