Tombstone, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Tombstone, 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 Tombstone 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 Tombstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tombstone — the short answer
Tombstone, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 8b is Tombstone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tombstone's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tombstone
Each reading below is measured for Tombstone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTombstone runs about 290 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
MeasuredTombstone 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 Tombstone is in
Tombstone sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Tombstone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Tombstone
Every plant below cleared Tombstone's own zone 8b and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tombstone?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Tombstone
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tombstone checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 426 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tombstone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tombstone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #11192Brownfields · 2400 ft
- CIRCLE K #2701310Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TOMBSTONE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- IKE'S MINI MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Vizina MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Vizina LodeMining · 0.8 mi
- Goodenough MineMining · 0.8 mi
- Sulphuret MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Ninety-SixMining · 1.0 mi
- Silver BarMining · 1.0 mi
- HamiltonMining · 1.0 mi
- Portland, Crescent, State of Va.Mining · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tombstone'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 Tombstone.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tombstone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tombstone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tombstone, Mining runs higher than the national average — 105 sites within ~10 miles of Tombstone. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Tombstone
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 Tombstone average
Your land is one point inside Tombstone
Everything above resolves to Tombstone 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 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 Tombstone Average
Tombstone Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tombstone
- ●One soil character for all of Tombstone
- ●Frost dates read at Tombstone's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tombstone's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tombstone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tombstone, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tombstone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tombstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tombstone average
How we know this about Tombstone
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 Tombstone’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 Tombstone
When does frost risk typically end in Tombstone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tombstone typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in Tombstone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tombstone typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tombstone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tombstone sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 20, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tombstone?
The federal record around Tombstone runs heavier than most — 131 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (105), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Tombstone?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tombstone's scale — its 8b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tombstone'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 Tombstone’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tombstone's own scale — its own ~290-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,921 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tombstone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tombstone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 17 and Dec 4 and the ~290-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tombstone, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tombstone's boundary and the 5,921 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tombstone's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tombstone 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 Tombstone's 5,921 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 Tombstone's 5,921 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tombstone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,921 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Tombstone-wide figureread your own land →