Vernon, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Vernon, 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 Vernon 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 Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vernon — the short answer
Vernon, Arizona: USDA zone 6b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 362 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 362 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 6b is Vernon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vernon's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vernon
Each reading below is measured for Vernon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVernon runs about 167 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVernon sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Vernon is in
Vernon sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Vernon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Apache County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vernon
Every plant below cleared Vernon's own zone 6b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vernon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Vernon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vernon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-10-25 22BBD2Nitrate · 2400 ft
- A-10-25 22BBCNitrate · 2600 ft
- HAPPY TRAILS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- A-10-25 20BCCNitrate · 2.1 mi
- A-11-25 23CABNitrate · 6.2 mi
- ADOT - CERRO MONTOSA MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- A-11-26 29BBBNitrate · 6.8 mi
- A-11-25 18DCC2Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- USDOI BIA ROUGH ROCK COMMUNITY SCHOOLBrownfields · 8.1 mi
- A-11-26 17ADCNitrate · 8.7 mi
- CHINLE FLEET MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 9.0 mi
- A-11-25 05AAANitrate · 9.6 mi
Measured from Vernon'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 Vernon.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Vernon
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 Vernon average
Your land is one point inside Vernon
Everything above resolves to Vernon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 362 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 Vernon Average
Vernon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vernon
- ●One soil character for all of Vernon
- ●Frost dates read at Vernon's scale: May 6 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vernon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vernon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vernon, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vernon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vernon average
How we know this about Vernon
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 Vernon’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 Vernon
When does frost risk typically end in Vernon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically lands around May 6, 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 May 27.
When is the first frost in Vernon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vernon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vernon sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Oct 6, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vernon?
The federal record around Vernon is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Vernon?
From about Sep 20 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 Oct 20 (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 Oct 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vernon's scale — its 6b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vernon'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 Vernon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vernon's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 362 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vernon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vernon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 20 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vernon, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vernon's boundary and the 362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vernon 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 Vernon's 362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Apache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Apache 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 Apache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vernon's 362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vernon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 362 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 Vernon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaVernon sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides