Wide Ruins, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, 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 Wide Ruins, 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 Wide Ruins 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 Wide Ruins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wide Ruins — the short answer
Wide Ruins, Arizona: USDA zone 6b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 250 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 250 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 Wide Ruins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wide Ruins's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wide Ruins
Each reading below is measured for Wide Ruins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWide Ruins runs about 161 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
MeasuredWide Ruins 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 Wide Ruins is in
Wide Ruins sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Wide Ruins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Apache County.
What Grows in Wide Ruins
Every plant below cleared Wide Ruins's own zone 6b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wide Ruins?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — 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 Wide Ruins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wide Ruins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17 126-00.17X05.80Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 17 126-00.22X05.74Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 17 126-01.75X08.90Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 17 126-01.86X00.08Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 17 110-01.50X17.24Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 17 110-01.45X16.90Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- APACHE COUNTY DISTRICT IIBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- 17 126-06.80X06.56Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 17 126-04.70X11.20Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- 17 110-04.30X17.08Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- 17 126-08.30X05.72-2Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 17 126-05.90X11.95Nitrate · 8.6 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wide Ruins'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 Wide Ruins.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wide Ruins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wide Ruins, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Wide Ruins. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Wide Ruins
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 Wide Ruins average
Your land is one point inside Wide Ruins
Everything above resolves to Wide Ruins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 250 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 Wide Ruins Average
Wide Ruins Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wide Ruins
- ●One soil character for all of Wide Ruins
- ●Frost dates read at Wide Ruins's scale: May 6 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wide Ruins's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wide Ruins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wide Ruins, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wide Ruins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wide Ruins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wide Ruins average
How we know this about Wide Ruins
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 Wide Ruins’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 Wide Ruins
When does frost risk typically end in Wide Ruins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wide Ruins 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 Wide Ruins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wide Ruins typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wide Ruins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wide Ruins sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 30, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wide Ruins?
The federal record around Wide Ruins is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Wide Ruins?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wide Ruins's scale — its 6b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wide Ruins'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 Wide Ruins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wide Ruins's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 250 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wide Ruins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wide Ruins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 14 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wide Ruins, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wide Ruins's boundary and the 250 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wide Ruins's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wide Ruins's 250 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 Wide Ruins's 250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wide Ruins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 250 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Wide Ruins-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaWide Ruins sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides