Washington Park, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, 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 Washington Park, 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 Washington Park 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 Washington Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Washington Park — the short answer
Washington Park, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8a is Washington Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Washington Park's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Washington Park
Each reading below is measured for Washington Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWashington Park runs about 196 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
MeasuredWashington Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Washington Park is in
Washington Park sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Washington Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Washington Park
Every plant below cleared Washington Park's own zone 8a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Washington Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
Documented around Washington Park
Survey cells within 31 miles of Washington Park checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 350 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Washington Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Washington Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-12-10 26CBBNitrate · 1700 ft
- A-12-10 23DBCNitrate · 0.7 mi
- A-12-10 22DCC1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- A-11H10 24BCA3Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- A-11H10 24BDC2Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- A-12-11 31DADNitrate · 3.0 mi
- CAMP GERONIMOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- A-11H11 24CCCNitrate · 5.6 mi
- A-11-10 11ABDNitrate · 6.0 mi
- Luper ClaimsMining · 6.3 mi
- Grand Prize MineMining · 6.6 mi
- Neptune PropertyMining · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Washington Park'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 Washington Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Washington Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Washington Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Washington Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Washington Park — Nitrate (32 sites) and Mining (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Washington Park
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 Washington Park average
Your land is one point inside Washington Park
Everything above resolves to Washington Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Washington Park Average
Washington Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Washington Park
- ●One soil character for all of Washington Park
- ●Frost dates read at Washington Park's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Washington Park's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Washington Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Washington Park, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Washington Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Washington Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Washington Park average
How we know this about Washington Park
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 Washington Park’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 Washington Park
When does frost risk typically end in Washington Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Washington Park typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Washington Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Washington Park typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Washington Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Washington Park sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 18, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Washington Park?
The federal record around Washington Park is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Washington Park?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Washington Park's scale — its 8a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Washington Park'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 Washington Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Washington Park's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,677 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Washington Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Washington Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 1 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Washington Park, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Washington Park's boundary and the 1,677 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Washington Park's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Washington Park 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 Washington Park's 1,677 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Washington Park's 1,677 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Washington Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,677 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 Washington Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaWashington Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides