Zephyr Cove, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Zephyr Cove, 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 Zephyr Cove 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 Zephyr Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Zephyr Cove — the short answer
Zephyr Cove, Nevada: USDA zone 7a, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Zephyr Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zephyr Cove's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Zephyr Cove
Each reading below is measured for Zephyr Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredZephyr Cove runs about 133 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
MeasuredZephyr Cove 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 Zephyr Cove is in
Zephyr Cove sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Zephyr Cove'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 Zephyr Cove
Every plant below cleared Zephyr Cove's own zone 7a and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Zephyr Cove?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Zephyr Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Zephyr Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGE WHITTELL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DCSD George Whittell High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DCSD Zephyr Cove Elem SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Zephyr Cove Fire Station #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BADC1 Zephyr 5Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BDA 1 Zephyr 3Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BAB 1 Zephyr 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BDB 3 Zephyr 2Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Zephyr Cove ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TRAVEL SYSTEMS LTDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 090 N13 E18 10BDBD1 Zephyr 4Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Costa ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zephyr Cove'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 Zephyr Cove.
Total Sites
845
within ~10 miles of Zephyr Cove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Zephyr Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Zephyr Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Zephyr Cove, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 518 sites within ~10 miles of Zephyr Cove. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Zephyr Cove
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 Zephyr Cove average
Your land is one point inside Zephyr Cove
Everything above resolves to Zephyr Cove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Zephyr Cove Average
Zephyr Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Zephyr Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Zephyr Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Zephyr Cove's scale: May 28 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zephyr Cove's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Zephyr Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zephyr Cove, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zephyr Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zephyr Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zephyr Cove average
How we know this about Zephyr Cove
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 Zephyr Cove’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 Zephyr Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Zephyr Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zephyr Cove typically lands around May 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Zephyr Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Zephyr Cove typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Zephyr Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zephyr Cove sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 28 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 18 to Sep 24, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Zephyr Cove?
The federal record around Zephyr Cove is a meaningful one — 845 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (518), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Zephyr Cove?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Zephyr Cove 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 28 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Zephyr Cove's scale — its 7a band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zephyr Cove'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 Zephyr Cove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Zephyr Cove's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,358 acres it covers and 845 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zephyr Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zephyr Cove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 28 and Oct 8 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 845 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Zephyr Cove, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Zephyr Cove's boundary and the 1,358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Zephyr Cove 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 Zephyr Cove's 1,358 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 Zephyr Cove's 1,358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Zephyr Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Zephyr Cove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaZephyr Cove sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides