Tusayan, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tusayan, 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 Tusayan 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 Tusayan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tusayan — the short answer
Tusayan, Arizona: USDA zone 6a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Tusayan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tusayan's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tusayan
Each reading below is measured for Tusayan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTusayan runs about 148 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
MeasuredTusayan 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 Tusayan is in
Tusayan sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Tusayan'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 Tusayan
Every plant below cleared Tusayan's own zone 6a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tusayan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Tusayan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tusayan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-30-02 25CNitrate · 2600 ft
- GRAND CANYON AIRLINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Best Western Squire Inn Well in TusayanNitrate · 1.1 mi
- GRAND CANYON SQUIRE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KENAI HELICOPTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- A-30-02 24CABNitrate · 1.2 mi
- PAPILLON GRAND CANYON HELICOPTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RED FEATHER PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- EXPRESS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GRAND CANYON UNION 76 SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MOQUI LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tusayan'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 Tusayan.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of Tusayan
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tusayan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tusayan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tusayan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tusayan — Mining (9 sites) and Nitrate (18 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tusayan
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 Tusayan average
Your land is one point inside Tusayan
Everything above resolves to Tusayan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Tusayan Average
Tusayan Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tusayan
- ●One soil character for all of Tusayan
- ●Frost dates read at Tusayan's scale: May 16 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tusayan's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tusayan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tusayan, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tusayan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tusayan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tusayan average
How we know this about Tusayan
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 Tusayan’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 Tusayan
When does frost risk typically end in Tusayan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tusayan typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Tusayan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tusayan typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tusayan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tusayan sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 27, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tusayan?
The federal record around Tusayan shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Tusayan?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Tusayan 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Tusayan's scale — its 6a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tusayan'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 Tusayan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tusayan's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,768 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tusayan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tusayan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Oct 11 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tusayan, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tusayan's boundary and the 10,768 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tusayan 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 Tusayan's 10,768 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 Tusayan's 10,768 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tusayan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,768 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Tusayan-wide figureread your own land →