Carter Springs, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Carter Springs, 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 Carter Springs 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 Carter Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carter Springs — the short answer
Carter Springs, Nevada: USDA zone 7a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Carter Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carter Springs's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carter Springs
Each reading below is measured for Carter Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarter Springs runs about 147 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
MeasuredCarter Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Carter Springs is in
Carter Springs sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Carter Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Carter Springs
Every plant below cleared Carter Springs's own zone 7a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carter Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Carter Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carter Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REED SKENANDOREBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Preachers MineMining · 1.0 mi
- Pine Nut Molybdenum ProspectMining · 1.0 mi
- Veta Grande MineMining · 2.1 mi
- Topaz Lake County ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 105 N12 E20 25AAAB1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 105 N12 E20 24DDD 1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 105 N12 E20 25AABB1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 105 N12 E20 24DDAB1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Suprise MineMining · 2.6 mi
- 105 N12 E20 24DAAA1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- Danite MineMining · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carter Springs'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 Carter Springs.
Total Sites
445
within ~10 miles of Carter Springs
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carter Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carter Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carter Springs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 308 sites within ~10 miles of Carter Springs. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Carter Springs
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 Carter Springs average
Your land is one point inside Carter Springs
Everything above resolves to Carter Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Carter Springs Average
Carter Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Carter Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Carter Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Carter Springs's scale: May 16 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carter Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carter Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carter Springs, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carter Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carter Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carter Springs average
How we know this about Carter Springs
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 Carter Springs’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 Carter Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Carter Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carter Springs typically lands around May 16, 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 Jun 6.
When is the first frost in Carter Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carter Springs typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carter Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carter Springs sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 26, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carter Springs?
The federal record around Carter Springs runs heavier than most — 445 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (308), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Carter Springs?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Carter Springs 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 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Carter Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carter Springs'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 Carter Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carter Springs's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,792 acres it covers and 445 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carter Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carter Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Oct 10 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 445 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carter Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carter Springs's boundary and the 1,792 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carter Springs'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 Carter Springs's 1,792 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carter Springs's 1,792 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carter Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,792 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Carter Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaCarter Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides