Hinckley, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hinckley, 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 Hinckley 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 Hinckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hinckley — the short answer
Hinckley, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6a is Hinckley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hinckley's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hinckley
Each reading below is measured for Hinckley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHinckley runs about 164 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
MeasuredHinckley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Hinckley is in
Hinckley sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Hinckley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Millard County.
What Grows in Hinckley
Every plant below cleared Hinckley's own zone 6a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hinckley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Hinckley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hinckley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HINCKLEY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WEST MILLARD CO-OP HINCKLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- (C-17- 7)20cbb- 1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- UDOT # 4483Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- (C-17- 8)13cdd- 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- CHRISTENSEN COMMERCIALCAFO · 3.1 mi
- (C-17- 8)11bbc- 1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- WEST MILLARD CO-OP DESERETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- (C-18- 7) 5aaa- 2Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- SPENLOVE FARMSCAFO · 3.6 mi
- (C-17- 7)34cbd- 2Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- (C-17- 7)26cac- 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hinckley'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 Hinckley.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Hinckley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hinckley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hinckley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hinckley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hinckley — CAFO (23 sites) and Nitrate (66 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hinckley
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 Hinckley average
Your land is one point inside Hinckley
Everything above resolves to Hinckley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Hinckley Average
Hinckley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hinckley
- ●One soil character for all of Hinckley
- ●Frost dates read at Hinckley's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hinckley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hinckley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hinckley, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hinckley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hinckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hinckley average
How we know this about Hinckley
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 Hinckley’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 Hinckley
When does frost risk typically end in Hinckley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hinckley typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Hinckley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hinckley typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hinckley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hinckley sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 24, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hinckley?
The federal record around Hinckley shows 130 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hinckley?
From about Sep 8 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 Oct 8 (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 Oct 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hinckley's scale — its 6a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hinckley'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 Hinckley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hinckley's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,204 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hinckley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hinckley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 8 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hinckley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hinckley's boundary and the 3,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hinckley's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hinckley's 3,204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Millard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Millard 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 Millard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hinckley's 3,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hinckley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hinckley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahHinckley sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides