Carlin, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Carlin, 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 Carlin 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 Carlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carlin — the short answer
Carlin, Nevada: USDA zone 5b, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 5b is Carlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlin's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlin
Each reading below is measured for Carlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlin runs about 136 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCarlin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Carlin is in
Carlin sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Carlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elko County.
What Grows in Carlin
Every plant below cleared Carlin's own zone 5b and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Carlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pilot Travel Centers LLC #387Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #9006Brownfields · 350 ft
- Carlin C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Chevron #9-4110-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Same As 6-000033Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TIC CARLIN YARDBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Western EnergetixUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FLYERS ENERGY LLC #779Brownfields · 2100 ft
- DEE GOLD MINING CO - BLMSuperfund · 2100 ft
- NEVADA BARTH CORPSuperfund · 2100 ft
- EISENMAN CHEM CO BARITE MINING INCSuperfund · 2100 ft
- BUCKSKIN NATIONAL MINESuperfund · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlin'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 Carlin.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Carlin
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carlin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carlin — Superfund (9 sites) and Mining (24 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Carlin
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 Carlin average
Your land is one point inside Carlin
Everything above resolves to Carlin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Carlin Average
Carlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Carlin
- ●One soil character for all of Carlin
- ●Frost dates read at Carlin's scale: May 10 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlin's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlin, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlin average
How we know this about Carlin
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Carlin’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Carlin
When does frost risk typically end in Carlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlin typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Carlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlin typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlin sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 9, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlin?
The federal record around Carlin runs heavier than most — 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Carlin?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Carlin rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Carlin's scale — its 5b band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlin'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 Carlin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carlin's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,683 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 23 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlin's boundary and the 6,683 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carlin's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carlin's 6,683 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elko County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elko 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 Elko County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlin's 6,683 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,683 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Carlin-wide figureread your own land →