Utting, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: jalapeno, palo verde, date palm, and prickly pear. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Utting, 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 Utting 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 Utting — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Utting — the short answer
Utting, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 29
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~345
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 La Paz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Utting's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Utting's 345-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Utting
Each reading below is measured for Utting itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUtting runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from La Paz County, the closest normal to Utting) — 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
MeasuredUtting sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Utting is in
Utting sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Utting's own centroid rather than borrowed from La Paz County.
What Grows in Utting
Plants matched to Utting's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Utting?
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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 29 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Utting
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Utting. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B-06-16 15CDB1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- B-06-16 15BCCNitrate · 0.8 mi
- B-06-16 27BBBNitrate · 1.1 mi
- WAYNE ARRINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ADOT - BOUSE MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- B-06-16 23DDCNitrate · 1.5 mi
- B-06-16 26AADNitrate · 1.9 mi
- B-06-16 34BBBNitrate · 2.1 mi
- B-06-15 06CCC2Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- B-06-15 30AAANitrate · 3.6 mi
- B-06-15 30DAANitrate · 3.7 mi
- B-05-15 06BAA1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Utting'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 Utting.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Utting
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Utting
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Utting
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Utting, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Utting — Mining (61 sites) and Nitrate (54 sites). 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.
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 Utting
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 Utting average
Your land is one point inside Utting
Everything above resolves to Utting as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 17K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from La Paz 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 Utting Average
Utting Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Utting
- ●One soil character for all of Utting
- ●Frost dates read at Utting's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Utting's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Utting
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Utting, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Utting averages can't show:
We read public map data around Utting — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Utting average
How we know this about Utting
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 La Paz 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 Utting
When does frost risk typically end in Utting?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Utting typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Utting?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Utting typically arrives around Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 15, so the watching starts about Nov 29 — about 345 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Utting?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Utting sees about 345 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 15, about 310 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Utting?
The federal record around Utting runs heavier than most — 123 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (61), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Utting?
From about Nov 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Utting's scale — its 9a band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Utting'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 Utting’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Utting's own scale — the 17,022 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Utting's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Utting, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Utting's boundary and the 17,022 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Utting's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Utting has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom La Paz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Utting's 17,022 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom La Paz County
- The candidate plant list — Arizona's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Arizona
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom La Paz 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 La Paz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Utting's 17,022 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Utting you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,022 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 Utting-wide figureread your own land →
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