The Moab / Canyon Country spans USDA hardiness zones 7a-7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Red-rock valley floors along the Colorado where orchards and vineyards work between slickrock walls — a 7a-7b, 200-225-day irrigated pocket with a longer, warmer floor at Moab itself than the surrounding high desert. The conditions favor tomato, peach, cherry, and blue spruce, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
The Moab / Canyon Country spans Utah.
Your yard isn't all of the Moab / Canyon Country.
The Moab / Canyon Country spans USDA zones 7a-7b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Moab / Canyon Country — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Moab / Canyon Country — the short answer
The Moab / Canyon Country: USDA zones 7a-7b, 200–225 frost-free days, in Utah.
- USDA zones
- 7a-7b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 200–225 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Towns
- 3
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- Town cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Moab / Canyon Country
Plants matched to the Moab / Canyon Country's USDA zones 7a-7b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Moab / Canyon Country
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Moab / Canyon Country’s USDA zones 7a-7b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground around the Moab / Canyon Country
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across the two counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country — the ground the Moab / Canyon Country sits in, read at the only grain the survey publishes.
In the counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country, the ground is predominantly Entisols, at 57% of mapped acres, followed by Aridisols (29%), Mollisols (13%) and Alfisols (1%). Five soil orders appear in that record, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Rizno, Moenkopie, and Chipeta.
66% of those acres are well drained, and another 3% somewhat excessively drained, 3% excessively drained. Topsoil pH runs 7.9–8.5 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 0% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
7.9–8.5
Hydric soils
0%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. San Juan County holds the most wetland ground here, at 1% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Moab / Canyon Country
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are the record for the counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records66% of the mapped acres across the counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country are well drained — ground that drains quickly. The survey maps this ground county-wide, so it describes the setting the Moab / Canyon Country sits in rather than the valley floor alone.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country runs pH 7.9–8.5 — alkaline in all two of them.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Moab / Canyon Country — and how to grow with it.
Across the 2 counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country the federal record holds 719 documented sites, mostly Mining (277), Nitrate (224) and Underground Storage Tanks (160). The heaviest single county is San Juan County, with 522.
That is the containing counties' count — this region is a smaller piece of that ground, so it is context, not a reading of any one lot. Open the map outlined to the Moab / Canyon Country to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 2 counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Moab / Canyon Country, two things run higher than the national average across the 2 counties containing the Moab / Canyon Country — Mining (277 sites) and Superfund (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Moab / Canyon Country
Everything above resolves to the Moab / Canyon Country as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 7a-7b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Moab / Canyon Country Average
Moab / Canyon Country Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a-7b, averaged across Moab / Canyon Country
- ●One soil character for all of Moab / Canyon Country
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moab / Canyon Country's 7a-7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Moab / Canyon Country
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Moab / Canyon Country — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moab / Canyon Country averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Moab / Canyon Country — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moab / Canyon Country average
How we know this about the Moab / Canyon Country
The boundary: the region's own towns — a footprint finer than any county, because the county average would misread this microclimate. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the towns inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Moab / Canyon Country
What hardiness zone is the Moab / Canyon Country?
The Moab / Canyon Country spans USDA hardiness zones 7a-7b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's own towns. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Moab / Canyon Country?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Moab / Canyon Country's towns mostly run 204 to 216 frost-free days, median 207 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 3 member towns). That 12-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 3 towns, and each town guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Moab / Canyon Country?
Across the Moab / Canyon Country, the middle half of member towns see their last 28°F hard freeze between Mar 31 and Apr 9 (median Apr 6), and their first fall freeze between Oct 30 and Nov 2. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 27, and elevation decides which end of a 9-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Moab / Canyon Country?
The Moab / Canyon Country's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Peach, Cherry, Blue Spruce, Sego Lily. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Moab / Canyon Country defined?
The Moab / Canyon Country is a true microclimate — smaller than the counties that contain it, with a growing reality of its own. So this page is built from the region's own 3 towns, each carrying its own hardiness zone and frost record, rather than from a county average measured somewhere else.
Which states does the Moab / Canyon Country cover?
The Moab / Canyon Country spans Utah. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Wasatch Front, Uintah Basin, Cache Valley, Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys), and Utah's Dixie / St. George share at least one state with the Moab / Canyon Country. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Moab / Canyon Country’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Moab / Canyon Country's own scale — the zone 7a-7b band across its footprint, a median 207-day season across its 3 towns and 719 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 522 of them in San Juan County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7a-7b aggregated across all 3 towns in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 3 towns this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 3 towns run 204 to 216 frost-free days, median 207NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 719 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 522 of them in San Juan County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 57% Entisols, topsoil pH 7.9–8.5, area-weighted across its 2 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7a-7bfrom Utah
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 12-day range your ground sits at — 204 days at one extreme, 216 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Moab / Canyon Country
State growing guides
Towns in this region
Counties containing this region
Other growing regions across Utah
Utah's populated bench country between the Wasatch range and the lakes — alkaline soils, intense high-desert sun, and irrigated orchard and garden ground along the mountain front.
Utah's Uintah Basin — the Daggett, Duchesne, and Uintah tri-county region defined by the Uintah Basin Association of Governments — is a high-elevation northeastern-Utah basin spanning USDA hardiness zones 5b to 6a, with a frost-free season ranging from roughly 143 days in Daggett to 184 days in Uintah county.
A cool mountain valley straddling the Utah-Idaho line along the Bear River, where USDA zone 6a-6b winters and a short frost-free season of roughly 150 to 165 days shape hardy vegetables, small grains, and cold-tolerant orchard fruit.
Park City, Heber, and the Kamas Valley sit barely an hour from Salt Lake yet garden in a different climate: cold high-mountain valleys at zone 5b with roughly 100–115 frost-free days in the county model — a full 1–2 zones and ~100 days shorter than the Wasatch Front bench just over the crest. Cold air pools in these basins and frost runs late into spring and early into fall, so the winning play is short-season and hardy — brassicas, root crops, cold-tolerant greens, and season extension rather than long-season heat lovers. It is a distinct short-season mountain-garden story the warm Wasatch Front page and the statewide average both wash out.
Utah's warm corner — the lower Virgin River valley reads a committed 8b with 281-298 frost-free days, a full zone warmer and six-plus weeks longer than the county row averaged over the high plateaus above; the state's one reliable ground for figs, pomegranates, and long-season heat lovers.