Jensen, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jensen, 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 Jensen 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 Jensen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jensen — the short answer
Jensen, Utah: USDA zone 5b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Jensen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jensen's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jensen
Each reading below is measured for Jensen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJensen runs about 174 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
MeasuredJensen 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 Jensen is in
Jensen sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Jensen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Uintah County.
What Grows in Jensen
Every plant below cleared Jensen's own zone 5b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jensen?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Jensen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jensen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (D- 5-23)20bcd- 1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- MARKEE LEE'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PRESTON PIT STOP / OLD SERVICE ST.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- (D- 5-23)21caa- 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- DINOSAUR VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- THACKER FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.4 mi
- (D- 5-22)24ccc- 1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- (D- 5-22)23ddb- 1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- (D- 5-22)26adb- 2Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- (D- 5-22)23dcb- 1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- (D- 5-22)26abb- 1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- (D- 5-22)23bdc- 1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jensen'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 Jensen.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Jensen
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jensen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jensen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jensen, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Jensen. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Jensen
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 Jensen average
Your land is one point inside Jensen
Everything above resolves to Jensen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Jensen Average
Jensen Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Jensen
- ●One soil character for all of Jensen
- ●Frost dates read at Jensen's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jensen's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jensen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jensen, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jensen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jensen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jensen average
How we know this about Jensen
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 Jensen’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 Jensen
When does frost risk typically end in Jensen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jensen typically lands around Apr 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 May 16.
When is the first frost in Jensen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jensen typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jensen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jensen sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 2, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jensen?
The federal record around Jensen shows 124 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Jensen?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jensen's scale — its 5b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jensen'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 Jensen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jensen's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,067 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jensen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jensen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 16 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jensen, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jensen's boundary and the 2,067 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jensen's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jensen's 2,067 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Uintah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Uintah 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 Uintah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jensen's 2,067 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jensen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,067 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Jensen-wide figureread your own land →
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