Blue Diamond, Nevada, 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.
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 Blue Diamond, 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 Blue Diamond 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 Blue Diamond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue Diamond — the short answer
Blue Diamond, Nevada: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Blue Diamond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Diamond's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Diamond
Each reading below is measured for Blue Diamond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Diamond runs about 277 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
MeasuredBlue Diamond 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 Blue Diamond is in
Blue Diamond sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Blue Diamond's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Blue Diamond
Every plant below cleared Blue Diamond's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Diamond?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Blue Diamond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Diamond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rebel Store #2171Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Same As 8-000208Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 212 S22 E58 01CDAD1 OLIVER RANCH 2Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- CERTAIN TEED GYPSUM LAS VEGAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- CERTAINTEED GYPSUM, LAS VEGAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- James Hardie GypsumUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Central Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Spring Mountain Ranch State Park-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- B P B GYPSUM INCBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Terribles #325Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Last ChanceMining · 5.0 mi
- NDOT-Mtn Springs Shop-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Diamond'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 Blue Diamond.
Total Sites
167
within ~10 miles of Blue Diamond
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Diamond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Diamond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Diamond, Mining runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Blue Diamond. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Blue Diamond
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 Blue Diamond average
Your land is one point inside Blue Diamond
Everything above resolves to Blue Diamond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Blue Diamond Average
Blue Diamond Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Blue Diamond
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Diamond
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Diamond's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Diamond's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Diamond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Diamond, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Diamond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Diamond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Diamond average
How we know this about Blue Diamond
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 Blue Diamond’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 Blue Diamond
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Diamond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Diamond typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Blue Diamond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Diamond typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Diamond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Diamond sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 13, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Diamond?
The federal record around Blue Diamond runs heavier than most — 167 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Blue Diamond?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue Diamond's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Diamond'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 Blue Diamond’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue Diamond's own scale — its own ~277-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,618 acres it covers and 167 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Diamond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Diamond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 23 and Nov 27 and the ~277-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 167 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Diamond, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Diamond's boundary and the 4,618 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blue Diamond's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue Diamond's 4,618 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark County
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Diamond's 4,618 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Diamond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,618 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Blue Diamond-wide figureread your own land →
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