Mesquite, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mesquite, 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 Mesquite 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 Mesquite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mesquite — the short answer
Mesquite, Nevada: USDA zone 9a, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 20K 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
- 20K 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 Mesquite's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mesquite's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mesquite
Each reading below is measured for Mesquite itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMesquite runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Clark County, the closest normal to Mesquite) — 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
MeasuredMesquite 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 Mesquite is in
Mesquite sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mesquite's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Mesquite
Every plant below cleared Mesquite'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 Mesquite?
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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Mesquite
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mesquite. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MESA VIEW REGIONAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Mesquite MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Terible Herbst Station #329Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #3847Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- VIRGIN VALLEY WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1.3 mi
- PRO IMAGE BODY AND PAINTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Green Valley Grocery #41Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CROWN BEVERAGE PACKAGINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- Terrible Herbst #176Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- C Mart ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5818Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- MESQUITE AUTO BODY & PAINTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mesquite'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 Mesquite.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Mesquite
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mesquite
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mesquite
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mesquite, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Mesquite. 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 Mesquite
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 Mesquite average
Your land is one point inside Mesquite
Everything above resolves to Mesquite as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 20K 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 Mesquite Average
Mesquite Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Mesquite
- ●One soil character for all of Mesquite
- ●Frost dates read at Mesquite's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mesquite's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mesquite
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mesquite, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mesquite averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mesquite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mesquite average
How we know this about Mesquite
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 Mesquite
When does frost risk typically end in Mesquite?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mesquite 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 Mesquite?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mesquite 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 Mesquite?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mesquite 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 Mesquite?
The federal record around Mesquite shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mesquite?
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 Mesquite's scale — its 9a band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mesquite'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 Mesquite’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mesquite's own scale — the 20,329 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mesquite's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mesquite, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mesquite's boundary and the 20,329 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 Mesquite's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mesquite 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 Mesquite's 20,329 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 Mesquite's 20,329 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mesquite you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,329 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mesquite-wide figureread your own land →
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