White Mountain Lake, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in White Mountain Lake, 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 White Mountain Lake 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 White Mountain Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
White Mountain Lake — the short answer
White Mountain Lake, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 7a is White Mountain Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Mountain Lake's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Mountain Lake
Each reading below is measured for White Mountain Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Mountain Lake runs about 183 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
MeasuredWhite Mountain Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 White Mountain Lake is in
White Mountain Lake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at White Mountain Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Navajo County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in White Mountain Lake
Every plant below cleared White Mountain Lake's own zone 7a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Mountain Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near White Mountain Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Mountain Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-11-22 15ADBNitrate · 0.8 mi
- A-11-22 35DBCNitrate · 2.7 mi
- CITY OF SHOW LOWPFAS · 2.9 mi
- A-11-22 18BBANitrate · 4.1 mi
- A-11-22 06BCDNitrate · 4.7 mi
- A-12-23 29CCCNitrate · 5.1 mi
- SHOW LOW REGIONAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ARIZONA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD - ARMORY OMSS#4AUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- A-11-23 03BBANitrate · 6.0 mi
- UNITED METRO MATERIAL INC (DBA CEMEX SHOWLOW)Toxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - WZN4Brownfields · 6.1 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZSHLBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Mountain Lake'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 White Mountain Lake.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of White Mountain Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Mountain Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Mountain Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Mountain Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of White Mountain Lake. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in White Mountain Lake
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 White Mountain Lake average
Your land is one point inside White Mountain Lake
Everything above resolves to White Mountain Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 15K 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 White Mountain Lake Average
White Mountain Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across White Mountain Lake
- ●One soil character for all of White Mountain Lake
- ●Frost dates read at White Mountain Lake's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Mountain Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Mountain Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Mountain Lake, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Mountain Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Mountain Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Mountain Lake average
How we know this about White Mountain Lake
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 White Mountain Lake’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 White Mountain Lake
When does frost risk typically end in White Mountain Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Mountain Lake typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in White Mountain Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Mountain Lake typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Mountain Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Mountain Lake sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 11, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Mountain Lake?
The federal record around White Mountain Lake shows 112 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 I protect my plants from frost in White Mountain Lake?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Mountain Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Mountain Lake'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 White Mountain Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Mountain Lake's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,384 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Mountain Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Mountain Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 25 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Mountain Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Mountain Lake's boundary and the 15,384 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- White Mountain Lake 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 White Mountain Lake's 15,384 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navajo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navajo 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 Navajo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Mountain Lake's 15,384 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Mountain Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,384 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 White Mountain Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaWhite Mountain Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides