East Basin, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Basin, 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 East Basin 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 East Basin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Basin — the short answer
East Basin, Utah: USDA zone 5b, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 5b is East Basin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Basin's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Basin
Each reading below is measured for East Basin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Basin runs about 138 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEast Basin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 East Basin is in
East Basin sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at East Basin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summit County.
What Grows in East Basin
Every plant below cleared East Basin's own zone 5b and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Basin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Documented around East Basin
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from East Basin, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Basin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Basin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SILVER CREEK WATER RECLAMATION FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PIPER IMPACT INC UTAH DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- TRIUMPH GEAR SYSTEMSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- TRIUMPH GEAR SYSTEMSToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- RESORT RETAILERS DBA 7 ELEVEN #53607Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #4415Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- SILVER CREEK JCT. SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- (D- 1- 4)16dca- 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- RICHARDSON FLAT TAILINGSSuperfund · 2.1 mi
- (D- 1- 4)17bbb- 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- CEMENT PLANT G6Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- STAKER PARSON PARK CITY BATCH PLANT F491935Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Basin'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 East Basin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Basin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Basin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Basin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Basin — Mining (185 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in East Basin
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 East Basin average
Your land is one point inside East Basin
Everything above resolves to East Basin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 East Basin Average
East Basin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across East Basin
- ●One soil character for all of East Basin
- ●Frost dates read at East Basin's scale: May 14 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Basin's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Basin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Basin, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Basin averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Basin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Basin average
How we know this about East Basin
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 East Basin’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 East Basin
When does frost risk typically end in East Basin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Basin typically lands around May 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 Jun 4.
When is the first frost in East Basin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Basin typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Basin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Basin sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 15, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Basin?
The federal record around East Basin runs heavier than most — 336 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (185), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in East Basin?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, East Basin rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at East Basin's scale — its 5b band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Basin'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 East Basin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Basin's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,759 acres it covers and 336 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Basin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Basin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 29 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 336 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Basin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Basin's boundary and the 5,759 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Basin's own centroid, the Wasatch and Uinta MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Basinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Basin's 5,759 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summit 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 Summit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Basin's 5,759 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Basin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,759 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 East Basin-wide figureread your own land →