American Fork, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in American Fork, 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 American Fork 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 American Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
American Fork — the short answer
American Fork, Utah: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 American Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against American Fork's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in American Fork
Each reading below is measured for American Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmerican Fork runs about 208 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAmerican Fork 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 American Fork is in
American Fork sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at American Fork's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Utah County is mostly Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in American Fork
Every plant below cleared American Fork's own zone 7a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in American Fork?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around American Fork
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from American Fork, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near American Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of American Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- U.S.WEST 671010Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- 7-ELEVEN # 36765Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ALBERTSONS #378Brownfields · 400 ft
- FAST GAS #8Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN POWER - AMERICAN FORK SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 600 ft
- UTAH POWER & LIGHT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TRI CITY FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ALPINE SCHOOL DIST.WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LARRY'S L & S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GREENWOOD MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VACANT (FORMERLY THE GLASS HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AMERICAN FORK CITY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from American Fork'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 American Fork.
Total Sites
730
within ~10 miles of American Fork
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of American Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of American Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around American Fork, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of American Fork — PFAS (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (55 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in American Fork
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 American Fork average
Your land is one point inside American Fork
Everything above resolves to American Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 American Fork Average
American Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across American Fork
- ●One soil character for all of American Fork
- ●Frost dates read at American Fork's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not American Fork's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in American Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in American Fork, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that American Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around American Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the American Fork average
How we know this about American Fork
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 American Fork’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 American Fork
When does frost risk typically end in American Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in American Fork typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in American Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in American Fork 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in American Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, American Fork sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 14, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in American Fork?
The federal record around American Fork runs heavier than most — 730 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (301), 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 I protect my plants from frost in American Fork?
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 American Fork's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of American Fork'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 American Fork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at American Fork's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,290 acres it covers and 730 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- American Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- American Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 28 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 730 documented contamination sites on the federal record near American Fork, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- American Fork's boundary and the 7,290 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- American Fork sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of American Forklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so American Fork's 7,290 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Utah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Utah County
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Utah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among American Fork's 7,290 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of American Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,290 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 American Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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