Garden, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Garden, 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 Garden 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 Garden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garden — the short answer
Garden, Utah: USDA zone 5a, about 120 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~120
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 5a is Garden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garden's 120-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garden
Each reading below is measured for Garden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarden runs about 120 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
MeasuredGarden sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Garden is in
Garden sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Garden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Rich County is mostly Wyoming Basin. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Garden
Every plant below cleared Garden's own zone 5a and its 120-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garden?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Garden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIKLEVILLE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BEAR LAKE SPECIAL SERVICE DIST.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- IDEAL BEACH EAST MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Hodge's CanyonMining · 3.4 mi
- (A-13- 6)30bbb- 1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- BENNION MOTOR & SPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- THE BEARS DEN BEAR LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- UTAH POWER & LIGHT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- DEES SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- BEAR LAKE KOA / LAKEVIEW MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- CROSSROADS CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- OLD ROCK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garden'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 Garden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garden, Mining runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Garden. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Garden
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 Garden average
Your land is one point inside Garden
Everything above resolves to Garden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Garden Average
Garden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Garden
- ●One soil character for all of Garden
- ●Frost dates read at Garden's scale: May 23 to Sep 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garden's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garden, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garden average
How we know this about Garden
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 Garden’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 Garden
When does frost risk typically end in Garden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garden typically lands around May 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 Jun 13.
When is the first frost in Garden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garden typically arrives around Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 6, so the watching starts about Aug 21 — about 120 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garden sees about 120 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Sep 6, about 85 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garden?
The federal record around Garden is a meaningful one — 30 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Garden?
With about 120 frost-free days between hard freezes, Garden 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 148 to 176 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Garden's scale — its 5a band and its 120-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garden'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 Garden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Garden's own scale — its own ~120-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,978 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Sep 20 and the ~120-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garden's boundary and the 16,978 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~120-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Garden sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garden's 16,978 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rich County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rich 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 Rich County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garden's 16,978 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,978 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Garden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahGarden sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides