Cornish, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cornish, 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 Cornish 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 Cornish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cornish — the short answer
Cornish, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- 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 6a is Cornish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cornish's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cornish
Each reading below is measured for Cornish itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCornish runs about 172 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
MeasuredCornish sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Cornish is in
Cornish sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cornish's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cache County is mostly Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cornish
Every plant below cleared Cornish's own zone 6a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cornish?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Cornish
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cornish. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (B-14- 1) 5ddd- 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- KOLLER CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- (B-14- 1)17add- 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- (A-14- 1) 6ccc- 1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- MERRILL'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- (B-15- 1)36ddd- 1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- RITEWOOD EGGSCAFO · 3.8 mi
- 16S 38E 24ACB1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- RITEWOOD EGGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 16S 38E 13CDA1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- WESTON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- LAVON R WILLIAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cornish'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 Cornish.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Cornish
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cornish
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cornish
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cornish, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cornish — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (50 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cornish
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 Cornish average
Your land is one point inside Cornish
Everything above resolves to Cornish 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 Cornish Average
Cornish Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cornish
- ●One soil character for all of Cornish
- ●Frost dates read at Cornish's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cornish's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cornish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cornish, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cornish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cornish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cornish average
How we know this about Cornish
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 Cornish’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 Cornish
When does frost risk typically end in Cornish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cornish typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Cornish?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cornish typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cornish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cornish sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 28, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cornish?
The federal record around Cornish shows 118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cornish?
From about Sep 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 Oct 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cornish's scale — its 6a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cornish'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 Cornish’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cornish's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,450 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cornish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cornish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 12 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cornish, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cornish's boundary and the 3,450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cornish 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 Cornish's 3,450 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cache 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 Cache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cornish's 3,450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cornish you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,450 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Cornish-wide figureread your own land →
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