Timberline-Fernwood, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Timberline-Fernwood, 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 Timberline-Fernwood 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 Timberline-Fernwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Timberline-Fernwood — the short answer
Timberline-Fernwood, Arizona: USDA zone 6a, about 140 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~140
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Timberline-Fernwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Timberline-Fernwood's 140-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Timberline-Fernwood
Each reading below is measured for Timberline-Fernwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTimberline-Fernwood runs about 140 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
MeasuredTimberline-Fernwood 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 Timberline-Fernwood is in
Timberline-Fernwood sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Timberline-Fernwood's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Coconino County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Timberline-Fernwood
Every plant below cleared Timberline-Fernwood's own zone 6a and its 140-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Timberline-Fernwood?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Timberline-Fernwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Timberline-Fernwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIC-N-RUN/TUMBLEWEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF FLAGSTAFF - HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS FACILITYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- A-22-08 23ABBNitrate · 3.1 mi
- AT&T - FLAGSTAFF - AZ2160Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- A-22-08 23ABCNitrate · 3.2 mi
- A-22-08 23AABNitrate · 3.2 mi
- SILVER SADDLE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- A-23-08 21AAD1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- USDOI NPS - SUNSET CRATER NATIONAL MONUMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- A-23-08 21AAB2Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- A-22-08 27CAANitrate · 3.9 mi
- HEAVY DUTY RADIATOR SERVICESBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Timberline-Fernwood'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 Timberline-Fernwood.
Total Sites
251
within ~10 miles of Timberline-Fernwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Timberline-Fernwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Timberline-Fernwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Timberline-Fernwood, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 164 sites within ~10 miles of Timberline-Fernwood. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Timberline-Fernwood
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 Timberline-Fernwood average
Your land is one point inside Timberline-Fernwood
Everything above resolves to Timberline-Fernwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Timberline-Fernwood Average
Timberline-Fernwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Timberline-Fernwood
- ●One soil character for all of Timberline-Fernwood
- ●Frost dates read at Timberline-Fernwood's scale: May 17 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Timberline-Fernwood's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Timberline-Fernwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Timberline-Fernwood, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Timberline-Fernwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Timberline-Fernwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Timberline-Fernwood average
How we know this about Timberline-Fernwood
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 Timberline-Fernwood’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 Timberline-Fernwood
When does frost risk typically end in Timberline-Fernwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Timberline-Fernwood typically lands around May 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Timberline-Fernwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Timberline-Fernwood typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 140 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Timberline-Fernwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Timberline-Fernwood sees about 140 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 20, about 105 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Timberline-Fernwood?
The federal record around Timberline-Fernwood is a meaningful one — 251 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Timberline-Fernwood?
With about 140 frost-free days between hard freezes, Timberline-Fernwood 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 168 to 196 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Timberline-Fernwood's scale — its 6a band and its 140-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Timberline-Fernwood'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 Timberline-Fernwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Timberline-Fernwood's own scale — its own ~140-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,292 acres it covers and 251 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Timberline-Fernwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Timberline-Fernwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 4 and the ~140-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 251 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Timberline-Fernwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Timberline-Fernwood's boundary and the 6,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~140-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Timberline-Fernwood sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Timberline-Fernwood's 6,292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coconino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coconino 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 Coconino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Timberline-Fernwood's 6,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Timberline-Fernwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Timberline-Fernwood-wide figureread your own land →