Mount Charleston, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Charleston, 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 Mount Charleston 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 Mount Charleston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Charleston — the short answer
Mount Charleston, Nevada: USDA zone 7a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 19K 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 Mount Charleston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Charleston's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Charleston
Each reading below is measured for Mount Charleston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Charleston runs about 149 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
MeasuredMount Charleston 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 Mount Charleston is in
Mount Charleston sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mount Charleston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Mount Charleston
Every plant below cleared Mount Charleston's own zone 7a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Charleston?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Mount Charleston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Charleston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Retreat on Charleston PeakUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Callville Bay Resort MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Same As 8-001386 - ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Griffith MineMining · 1.4 mi
- Lee Canyon Youth CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 212 S19 E56 26DBDD1 ECHO 3Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Zeinka MineMining · 3.0 mi
- Mt Charleston Fire StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Lee Canyon Ranger StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- Ada & Edith ClaimsMining · 6.1 mi
- Ada and Edith ClaimsMining · 6.1 mi
- Lucky Strike MineMining · 6.5 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Charleston'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 Mount Charleston.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Charleston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Charleston
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Charleston
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 Mount Charleston average
Your land is one point inside Mount Charleston
Everything above resolves to Mount Charleston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 19K 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 Mount Charleston Average
Mount Charleston Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mount Charleston
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Charleston
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Charleston's scale: May 17 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Charleston's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Charleston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Charleston, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Charleston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Charleston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Charleston average
How we know this about Mount Charleston
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 Mount Charleston’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 Mount Charleston
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Charleston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Charleston typically lands around May 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Mount Charleston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Charleston typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Charleston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Charleston sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 29, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Charleston?
The federal record around Mount Charleston is a meaningful one — 20 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Mount Charleston?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mount Charleston 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mount Charleston's scale — its 7a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Charleston'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 Mount Charleston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Charleston's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,763 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Charleston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Charleston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 13 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Charleston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Charleston's boundary and the 18,763 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Charleston's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Charleston's 18,763 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 Mount Charleston's 18,763 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Charleston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,763 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Mount Charleston-wide figureread your own land →
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