Cache County, in Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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.
Cache County lies within the Cache Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cache County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cache County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Cache County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cache County — the short answer
Cache County, Utah: USDA zone 6b, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 745K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 745K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6b is Cache County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cache County's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cache County
Across a year, Cache County accumulates about 1,716 growing degree days above 50°F, about 796 fewer than the middle Utah county — ahead of 5 of Utah’s 29 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Cache County
Across Cache County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Agassiz, Lucky Star, and Yeates Hollow are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.6, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cache County
The USDA soil survey maps 57% of Cache County as well drained — but another 39% drains differently: 17% somewhat excessively drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained.
Agassiz is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Lucky Star (6%) and Yeates Hollow (4%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Cache County
Each reading below is measured for Cache County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Cache County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cache County runs about pH 6.7–7.6, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCache County runs about 156 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
MeasuredCache County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Cache County is in
Cache County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Wasatch and Uinta Mountains (66%) and Central Basin and Range (33%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Cache County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cache County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 156-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile.
Is it too late to plant in Cache County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Cache County
- monarch butterfly11 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cache County
USGS estimates 15,615 lb of Glyphosate on Cache County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (9,532 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (9,532 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Cache County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cache County — 530 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Cache County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cache County
Closest first, across Cache County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Emmett Mining and MillingMining · 0.8 mi
- USU WATER RESEARCH LABUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- UTAH WATER RESEARCH LABORATORYBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- (A-12- 1)24ada- 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- UNIVERSITY EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- USU BLDG 67 GROUNDS MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- USU BLDG 49 GROUNDS MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- USU BLDG 67 GROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- USU BLDG 47 PHYSICAL PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- USU BLDG 48 VEHICLE MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- USU BLDG 49 PAINT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- USU BLDG 52 FOOD SCIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cache County'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 Cache County.
Severity Distribution
across Cache County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cache County, two things run higher than the national average across Cache County — CAFO (13 sites) and PFAS (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Cache County
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 Cache County average
Your land is one point inside Cache County
Everything above resolves to Cache County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 745K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Cache County Average
Cache County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cache County
- ●One soil character for all of Cache County
- ●Frost dates read at Cache County's scale: May 6 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cache County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cache County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cache County, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cache County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cache County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cache County average
How we know this about Cache County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Cache County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cache County
When does frost risk typically end in Cache County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cache County typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Cache County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cache County sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 25, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cache County?
The federal record around Cache County runs heavier than most — 530 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (224), the nearest Mining record about 0.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Cache County's scale — its 6b band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cache County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Utah's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Cache County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cache County's own scale — its own ~156-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 530 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cache County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cache County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cache CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 530 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cache County's boundary and the 745,399 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Cache County spans, Wasatch and Uinta Mountains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cache County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cache County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Cache County — the ~156 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cache County's 745,399 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 530 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Cache Countyread your own land →