Laughlin, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include tomato, pomegranate, sagebrush, and pinon pine; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Laughlin, 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 Laughlin 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 Laughlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Laughlin — the short answer
Laughlin, Nevada: USDA zone 10a, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- 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
- Town area
- 10K 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 10a is Laughlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laughlin's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laughlin
Each reading below is measured for Laughlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLaughlin runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Clark County, the closest normal to Laughlin) — 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
MeasuredLaughlin sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Laughlin is in
Laughlin sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Laughlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Laughlin
Plants matched to Laughlin's USDA zones 10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Laughlin?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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.
Documented around Laughlin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Laughlin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 201 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Laughlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laughlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Area II Booster StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Mobil Gas Station & Conv StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Lift Station #26Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Same As 8-000565Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- South Pointe MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BLM Communication Site-Newberry - ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FLAMINGO HILTON LAUGHLIN INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- RIVIERA SERVICE - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Laughlin Bay MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Clark County Sanitation DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Laughlin High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 213 S32 E66 33AAA 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laughlin'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 Laughlin.
Total Sites
174
within ~10 miles of Laughlin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laughlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laughlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Laughlin, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Laughlin. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Laughlin
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 Laughlin average
Your land is one point inside Laughlin
Everything above resolves to Laughlin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clark County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Laughlin Average
Laughlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Laughlin
- ●One soil character for all of Laughlin
- ●Frost dates read at Laughlin's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laughlin's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laughlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laughlin, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laughlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laughlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laughlin average
How we know this about Laughlin
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 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 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 Laughlin
When does frost risk typically end in Laughlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laughlin 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 Laughlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laughlin 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 Laughlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laughlin 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 Laughlin?
The federal record around Laughlin is a meaningful one — 174 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Laughlin?
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 Laughlin's scale — its 10a band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laughlin'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 Laughlin’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Laughlin's own scale — the 10,461 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laughlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laughlin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laughlin's boundary and the 10,461 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Laughlin's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Laughlin checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Laughlin 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 Laughlin's 10,461 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- The candidate plant list — Nevada's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Nevada
- 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 Laughlin's 10,461 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laughlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,461 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Laughlin-wide figureread your own land →
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