Davis County, in Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Davis County lies within the Wasatch Front — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Davis County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Davis 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 Davis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Davis County — the short answer
Davis County, Utah: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 208K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 208K 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 7a is Davis County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Davis County's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Davis County
Across a year, Davis County accumulates about 3,166 growing degree days above 50°F, about 654 more than the middle Utah county — ahead of 24 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 Davis County
Across Davis County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Kilburn, Kidman, and Ridd are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
23%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Davis County
The USDA soil survey maps 19% of Davis County as well drained — but another 21% drains differently: 8% somewhat poorly drained, 7% very poorly drained.
Kilburn is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Kidman (11%) and Ridd (10%).
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 Davis County
Each reading below is measured for Davis 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 Davis County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Davis County runs about pH 7.0–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 23% of Davis County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredDavis County runs about 225 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
The kind of country Davis County is in
Davis County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Basin and Range (88%) and Wasatch and Uinta Mountains (12%). 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 Davis County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Davis County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 225-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 Davis County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Davis County
- monarch butterfly11 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Davis County
USGS estimates 636 lb of Glyphosate on Davis County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (520 lb) and Metolachlor-s (369 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 Davis County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Davis County — 877 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 14 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Davis 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 Davis County
Closest first, across Davis County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEPT NATURAL RESOURCES ANTELOPE ISLAND STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ANTELOPE ISLAND STATE PARK MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- (B- 4- 3)19caa- 3Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- (B- 4- 3)19caa- 1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- (B- 4- 2)20cca- 1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- (B- 4- 2) 7ccc- 1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- NORTH DAVIS COUNTY SEWER DIST.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Upper Buffalo Scaffold Canyon ProspectsMining · 5.8 mi
- (B- 4- 2) 7dcc- 1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- Blue Jay and Roberts GroupsMining · 6.4 mi
- SYRACUSE CITY WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 7.0 mi
- (B- 5- 3)36dad- 2Nitrate · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Davis 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 Davis County.
Sources Checked
across Davis County
Severity Distribution
across Davis County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Davis County, two things run higher than the national average across Davis County — PFAS (18 sites) and Superfund (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Davis 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 Davis County average
Your land is one point inside Davis County
Everything above resolves to Davis County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 208K 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 Davis County Average
Davis County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Davis County
- ●One soil character for all of Davis County
- ●Frost dates read at Davis County's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Davis County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Davis County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Davis County, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Davis County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Davis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Davis County average
How we know this about Davis 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 Davis County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Davis County
When does frost risk typically end in Davis County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Davis County typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
How long is the growing season in Davis County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Davis County sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 22, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Davis County?
The federal record around Davis County runs heavier than most — 877 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (401), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Davis County's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Davis 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 Davis County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Davis County's own scale — its own ~225-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 877 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Davis County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Davis County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Davis CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 877 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Davis County's boundary and the 207,846 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Davis County spans, Central Basin and Range the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Davis County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Davis 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 Davis County — the ~225 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 Davis County's 207,846 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 877 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 Davis Countyread your own land →