Big Water, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Big Water, 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 Big Water 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 Big Water — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Water — the short answer
Big Water, Utah: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 8a is Big Water's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Water's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Water
Each reading below is measured for Big Water itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Water runs about 242 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
MeasuredBig Water sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Big Water is in
Big Water sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Big Water's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kane County.
What Grows in Big Water
Every plant below cleared Big Water's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Water?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Big Water
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Water. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WARM CREEK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LAKE POWELL MARINE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BIG WATER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- U.S. NATL PARK SERVICE GLEN CANYON NRA (GRCA)Toxics Release Inventory · 7.5 mi
- LAKE POWELL TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- STATELINE MARINA FUEL DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.9 mi
Measured from Big Water'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 Big Water.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Big Water
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Water
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Big Water
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 Big Water average
Your land is one point inside Big Water
Everything above resolves to Big Water as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Big Water Average
Big Water Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Big Water
- ●One soil character for all of Big Water
- ●Frost dates read at Big Water's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Water's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Water
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Water, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Water averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Water — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Water average
How we know this about Big Water
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 Big Water’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 Big Water
When does frost risk typically end in Big Water?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Water typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Big Water?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Water typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Water?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Water sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Oct 28, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Water?
The federal record around Big Water is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Big Water?
From about Oct 12 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 Nov 11 (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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Water's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Water'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 Big Water’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Water's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,835 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Water's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Water's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 11 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Water, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Water's boundary and the 3,835 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Water's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Water's 3,835 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kane 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 Kane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Water's 3,835 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Water you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,835 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Big Water-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahBig Water sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides