What Grows in Cottonwood Heights, Utah

The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cottonwood Heights typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.

The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cottonwood Heights typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cottonwood Heights sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 18, about 181 days.

The federal record around Cottonwood Heights runs heavier than most — 2,696 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,236), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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.

From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.