Skyland, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Skyland, 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 Skyland 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 Skyland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Skyland — the short answer
Skyland, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 130 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~130
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6b is Skyland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Skyland's 130-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Skyland
Each reading below is measured for Skyland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSkyland runs about 130 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
MeasuredSkyland sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Skyland is in
Skyland sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Skyland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Douglas County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Skyland
Every plant below cleared Skyland's own zone 6b and its 130-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Skyland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Skyland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Skyland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 090 N14 E18 34CDD 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GEORGE WHITTELL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- DCSD Zephyr Cove Elem SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DCSD George Whittell High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Costa ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Cave Rock Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Mannys Cave Rock InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Zephyr Cove Fire Station #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BAB 1 Zephyr 1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BADC1 Zephyr 5Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BDA 1 Zephyr 3Nitrate · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Skyland'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 Skyland.
Total Sites
834
within ~10 miles of Skyland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Skyland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Skyland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Skyland, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 506 sites within ~10 miles of Skyland. 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 Skyland
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 Skyland average
Your land is one point inside Skyland
Everything above resolves to Skyland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Skyland Average
Skyland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Skyland
- ●One soil character for all of Skyland
- ●Frost dates read at Skyland's scale: May 30 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Skyland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Skyland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Skyland, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Skyland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Skyland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Skyland average
How we know this about Skyland
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 Skyland’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 Skyland
When does frost risk typically end in Skyland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Skyland typically lands around May 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Skyland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Skyland typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 130 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Skyland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Skyland sees about 130 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 23, about 95 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Skyland?
The federal record around Skyland is a meaningful one — 834 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (506), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Skyland?
With about 130 frost-free days between hard freezes, Skyland 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 158 to 186 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Skyland's scale — its 6b band and its 130-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Skyland'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 Skyland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Skyland's own scale — its own ~130-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,788 acres it covers and 834 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Skyland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Skyland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Oct 7 and the ~130-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 834 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Skyland, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Skyland's boundary and the 2,788 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~130-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Skyland sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Skyland's 2,788 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Skyland's 2,788 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Skyland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,788 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Skyland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaSkyland sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides