York, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in York, 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 York 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 York — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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York — the short answer
York, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 8b is York's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against York's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in York
Each reading below is measured for York itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYork runs about 267 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredYork sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 York is in
York sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at York's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Greenlee County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in York
Every plant below cleared York's own zone 8b and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in York?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around York
Survey cells within 31 miles of York checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 462 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near York
Closest first, within ~10 miles of York. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GORDON HILLS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- D-06-31 17CBA2Nitrate · 2400 ft
- TA YOUNG TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GREENLEE COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ADOT - 3 WAY MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- THREE-WAY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- D-06-30 01BAANitrate · 3.0 mi
- CommerceMining · 6.7 mi
- Daniels CampMining · 7.4 mi
- Daniels Camp 1 & 2Mining · 7.4 mi
- Copper Bar Shaft and AditMining · 7.7 mi
- Fourth of July ClaimsMining · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from York'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 York.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of York
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of York
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in York
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 York average
Your land is one point inside York
Everything above resolves to York as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 York Average
York Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across York
- ●One soil character for all of York
- ●Frost dates read at York's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not York's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in York
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in York, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that York averages can't show:
We read public map data around York — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the York average
How we know this about York
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 York’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 York
When does frost risk typically end in York?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in York typically lands around Mar 1, 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 Mar 22.
When is the first frost in York?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in York typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in York?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, York sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 9, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in York?
The federal record around York shows 22 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (13), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 York?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at York's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of York'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 York’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at York's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,313 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- York's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- York's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 1 and Nov 23 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near York, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- York's boundary and the 1,313 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- York sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around York 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 York's 1,313 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenlee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenlee 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 Greenlee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among York's 1,313 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of York you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,313 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 York-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaYork sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.