Las Vegas, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Las Vegas, 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 Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Las Vegas — the short answer
Las Vegas, Nevada: USDA zone 9a, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 91K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 91K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Clark County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Las Vegas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Las Vegas's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Las Vegas
Each reading below is measured for Las Vegas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLas Vegas runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Clark County, the closest normal to Las Vegas) — 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
MeasuredLas Vegas sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Las Vegas is in
Las Vegas sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Las Vegas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Las Vegas
Every plant below cleared Las Vegas's own zone 9a and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Las Vegas?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Las Vegas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Las Vegas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 212 S20 E60 04CAD 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- CHEYENNE WEST ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Short Line Express Market #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- S&S Fuels #8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Rebel Store #2188Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #2929Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- ALBERTSONS #6018Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- ER AT W CRAIGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Terrible Herbst #188 (Gas) & #190 (Lube)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Bunkers Memory GardensUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #8821Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- Fire Station #42Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Las Vegas'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 Las Vegas.
Total Sites
1,738
within ~10 miles of Las Vegas
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Las Vegas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Las Vegas
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Las Vegas
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 Las Vegas average
Your land is one point inside Las Vegas
Everything above resolves to Las Vegas as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 91K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clark County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Las Vegas Average
Las Vegas Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Las Vegas
- ●One soil character for all of Las Vegas
- ●Frost dates read at Las Vegas's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Las Vegas's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Las Vegas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Las Vegas, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Las Vegas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Las Vegas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Las Vegas average
How we know this about Las Vegas
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 Clark County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Las Vegas
When does frost risk typically end in Las Vegas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Las Vegas typically lands around Jan 25, 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 Feb 15.
When is the first frost in Las Vegas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Las Vegas typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Las Vegas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Las Vegas sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Nov 28, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Las Vegas?
The federal record around Las Vegas runs heavier than most — 1,738 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (988), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Las Vegas?
From about Nov 12 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 Dec 12 (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 Dec 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Las Vegas's scale — its 9a band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Las Vegas'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 Las Vegas’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Las Vegas's own scale — the 90,794 acres it covers and 1,738 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Las Vegas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,738 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Las Vegas, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Las Vegas's boundary and the 90,794 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Las Vegas's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Las Vegas has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clark County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Las Vegas's 90,794 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 Las Vegas's 90,794 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Las Vegas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 90,794 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Las Vegas-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Growing region
Nearby growing guides