Mexican Hat, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mexican Hat, 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 Mexican Hat 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 Mexican Hat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mexican Hat — the short answer
Mexican Hat, Utah: USDA zone 7b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7b is Mexican Hat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mexican Hat's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mexican Hat
Each reading below is measured for Mexican Hat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMexican Hat runs about 226 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMexican Hat sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Mexican Hat is in
Mexican Hat sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mexican Hat's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Juan County.
What Grows in Mexican Hat
Every plant below cleared Mexican Hat's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mexican Hat?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Mexican Hat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mexican Hat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN #53619Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BURCHS TRADING CO. CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- OSCAR'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- (D-42-19) 7dda- 2Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- MEXICAN HAT ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
Measured from Mexican Hat'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 Mexican Hat.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mexican Hat
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Mexican Hat
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 Mexican Hat average
Your land is one point inside Mexican Hat
Everything above resolves to Mexican Hat as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Mexican Hat Average
Mexican Hat Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Mexican Hat
- ●One soil character for all of Mexican Hat
- ●Frost dates read at Mexican Hat's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mexican Hat's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mexican Hat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mexican Hat, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mexican Hat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mexican Hat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mexican Hat average
How we know this about Mexican Hat
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 Mexican Hat’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 Mexican Hat
When does frost risk typically end in Mexican Hat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mexican Hat typically lands around Mar 26, 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 Apr 16.
When is the first frost in Mexican Hat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mexican Hat typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mexican Hat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mexican Hat sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 24, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mexican Hat?
The federal record around Mexican Hat is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mexican Hat?
From about Oct 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mexican Hat's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mexican Hat'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 Mexican Hat’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mexican Hat's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,256 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mexican Hat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mexican Hat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 7 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mexican Hat, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mexican Hat's boundary and the 5,256 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mexican Hat's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mexican Hat's 5,256 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Juan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Juan 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 San Juan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mexican Hat's 5,256 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mexican Hat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,256 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Mexican Hat-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahMexican Hat sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides