Mountain City, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include pumpkin, blackberry, lavender, and zucchini; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mountain City, 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 Mountain City 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 Mountain City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mountain City — the short answer
Mountain City, Nevada: USDA zone 5b, about 103 days between hard freezes, across 113 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~103
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 113 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 5b is Mountain City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain City's 103-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain City
Each reading below is measured for Mountain City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMountain City runs about 103 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
MeasuredMountain City sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Mountain City is in
Mountain City sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mountain City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Elko County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mountain City
Every plant below cleared Mountain City's own zone 5b and its 103-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Mountain City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Caroline PaisanoUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- RIO TINTO MINESuperfund · 400 ft
- Former Read's Golden Rule StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Lime CreekMining · 1100 ft
- Small FryMining · 1300 ft
- Walker BoyMining · 1300 ft
- Coffee PotMining · 1300 ft
- HopeMining · 1300 ft
- MiscellaneousMining · 1300 ft
- ResurrectionMining · 2300 ft
- Protection Group MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Mountain City MercuryMining · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain City'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 Mountain City.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Mountain City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 47 sites within ~10 miles of Mountain City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Mountain City
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 Mountain City average
Your land is one point inside Mountain City
Everything above resolves to Mountain City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 113 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 Mountain City Average
Mountain City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Mountain City
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain City
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain City's scale: Jun 3 to Sep 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain City's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain City, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain City average
How we know this about Mountain City
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 Mountain City’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 Mountain City
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain City typically lands around Jun 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Mountain City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain City typically arrives around Sep 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 31, so the watching starts about Aug 15 — about 103 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain City sees about 103 frost-free days — roughly Jun 3 through Sep 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 24 to Aug 31, about 68 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain City?
The federal record around Mountain City runs heavier than most — 52 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mountain City?
With about 103 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mountain City 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 131 to 159 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 3 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mountain City's scale — its 5b band and its 103-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain City'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 Mountain City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mountain City's own scale — its own ~103-day season between 28°F freezes, the 113 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mountain City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 3 and Sep 14 and the ~103-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain City's boundary and the 113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~103-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mountain City sits in the Northern Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain City's 113 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elko County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elko 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 Elko County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mountain City's 113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 113 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mountain City-wide figureread your own land →