Sparks, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sparks, 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 Sparks 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 Sparks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sparks — the short answer
Sparks, Nevada: USDA zone 7a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Sparks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sparks's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sparks
Each reading below is measured for Sparks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSparks runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSparks 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 Sparks is in
Sparks sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sparks's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Washoe County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sparks
Every plant below cleared Sparks's own zone 7a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sparks?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Sparks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sparks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rainbow Market #10Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS #8188Brownfields · 2000 ft
- 087 N20 E20 27CACA1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #4691Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- Dads Quik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Vista MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Reed High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- REED HIGH SCHOOL MERCURY SITESuperfund · 1.3 mi
- 085 N20 E20 21ADDA1 Washoe CountyNitrate · 1.3 mi
- Jacksons Food Stores #137Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 087 N20 E20 34ACCC1 USGS - Reed High School 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- SMITHS 357-706Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sparks'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 Sparks.
Total Sites
1,772
within ~10 miles of Sparks
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sparks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sparks
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Sparks
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 Sparks average
Your land is one point inside Sparks
Everything above resolves to Sparks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 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 Sparks Average
Sparks Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sparks
- ●One soil character for all of Sparks
- ●Frost dates read at Sparks's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sparks's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sparks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sparks, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sparks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sparks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sparks average
How we know this about Sparks
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 Sparks’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 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 Sparks
When does frost risk typically end in Sparks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sparks typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Sparks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sparks typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sparks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sparks sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 14, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sparks?
The federal record around Sparks is a meaningful one — 1,772 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (843), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sparks?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sparks's scale — its 7a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sparks'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 Sparks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sparks's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,357 acres it covers and 1,772 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sparks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sparks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 28 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,772 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sparks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sparks's boundary and the 23,357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sparks sits in the Central 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 Sparks's 23,357 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washoe 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 Washoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sparks's 23,357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sparks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,357 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sparks-wide figureread your own land →
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