Leeds, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leeds, 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 Leeds 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 Leeds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leeds — the short answer
Leeds, Utah: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 8b is Leeds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leeds's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leeds
Each reading below is measured for Leeds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeeds runs about 297 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLeeds sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Leeds is in
Leeds sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Leeds's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Leeds
Every plant below cleared Leeds's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leeds?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Leeds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leeds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Plata #1 , 2 & 3Mining · 1900 ft
- Plata 1-3Mining · 1900 ft
- Rattlesnake MineMining · 1900 ft
- VanderbiltMining · 0.6 mi
- MARK LUDLOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Walkeng Mining Co.Mining · 0.9 mi
- Chloride Chief & Silver PointMining · 0.9 mi
- Chloride ChiefMining · 0.9 mi
- BIG HILL/CHLORIDE CHIEF MINESSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- (C-41-13) 7ccb- 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Vanderbilt No.4 MinesMining · 1.0 mi
- Vanderbilt #4 MinesMining · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leeds'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 Leeds.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Leeds
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leeds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leeds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leeds, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leeds — Mining (56 sites) and Nitrate (118 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Leeds
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 Leeds average
Your land is one point inside Leeds
Everything above resolves to Leeds as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Leeds Average
Leeds Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Leeds
- ●One soil character for all of Leeds
- ●Frost dates read at Leeds's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leeds's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leeds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leeds, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leeds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leeds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leeds average
How we know this about Leeds
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 Leeds’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 Leeds
When does frost risk typically end in Leeds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leeds typically lands around Feb 8, 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 Mar 1.
When is the first frost in Leeds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leeds typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leeds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leeds sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 18, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leeds?
The federal record around Leeds is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (118), the nearest Mining record about 0.4 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 I protect my plants from frost in Leeds?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leeds's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leeds'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 Leeds’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leeds's own scale — its own ~297-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,029 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leeds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leeds's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 8 and Dec 2 and the ~297-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leeds, the closest Mining record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leeds's boundary and the 4,029 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leeds's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leeds's 4,029 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leeds's 4,029 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leeds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,029 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.4 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 Leeds-wide figureread your own land →
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