Interlaken, 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 Interlaken, 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 Interlaken 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 Interlaken — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Interlaken — the short answer
Interlaken, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 145 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 145 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 Interlaken's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Interlaken's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Interlaken's own 30-year record measures about 145 days between 28°F killing freezes — 34 days longer than Wasatch County's ~111. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Interlaken's ~145-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Interlaken
Each reading below is measured for Interlaken itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredInterlaken runs about 145 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
MeasuredInterlaken 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 Interlaken is in
Interlaken sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Interlaken's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wasatch County.
What Grows in Interlaken
Every plant below cleared Interlaken's own zone 6a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Interlaken?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — 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.
Documented around Interlaken
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Interlaken, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Interlaken
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Interlaken. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WASATCH MTN. STATE PARK GOLF SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- (D- 3 -4)23daa- 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- (D- 3- 4)26dba- 1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Thaynes MineMining · 1.3 mi
- WASATCH MTN. STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- (D- 3- 4)33aad- 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- MIDWAY CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MIDWAY 7-ELEVENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- RIDLEYS EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MIDWAY AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- (D- 3- 4)33acb- 3Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- (D- 3- 4)33acb- 2Nitrate · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Interlaken'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 Interlaken.
Total Sites
629
within ~10 miles of Interlaken
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Interlaken
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Interlaken
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Interlaken, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Interlaken — Mining (380 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). 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.
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 Interlaken
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 Interlaken average
Your land is one point inside Interlaken
Everything above resolves to Interlaken as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Interlaken Average
Interlaken Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Interlaken
- ●One soil character for all of Interlaken
- ●Frost dates read at Interlaken's scale: May 9 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Interlaken's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Interlaken
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Interlaken, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Interlaken averages can't show:
We read public map data around Interlaken — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Interlaken average
How we know this about Interlaken
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 Interlaken’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 Interlaken
When does frost risk typically end in Interlaken?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Interlaken typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Interlaken?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Interlaken typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Interlaken?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Interlaken sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 17, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Interlaken?
The federal record around Interlaken runs heavier than most — 629 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (380), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Interlaken?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Interlaken 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Interlaken's scale — its 6a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Interlaken'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 Interlaken’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Interlaken's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 145 acres it covers and 629 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Interlaken's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Interlaken's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 1 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 629 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Interlaken, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Interlaken's boundary and the 145 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Interlaken's own centroid, the Wasatch and Uinta MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Interlakenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Interlaken's 145 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wasatch County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wasatch 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 Wasatch County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Interlaken's 145 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Interlaken you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 145 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Interlaken-wide figureread your own land →