Oak City, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oak City, 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 Oak City 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 Oak City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oak City — the short answer
Oak City, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 746 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 746 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 Oak City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak City's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak City
Each reading below is measured for Oak City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOak City runs about 181 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
MeasuredOak City 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 Oak City is in
Oak City sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Oak City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Millard County.
What Grows in Oak City
Every plant below cleared Oak City's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Oak City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANDERSON FARM ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- OAK CITY SHOPPING MALL LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WEST MILLARD CO-OP OAK CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AUSTIN N. LOVELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- (C-16- 4)30ddb- 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- SAND DUNE WELL T16S R05W SEC35 NE1/4 NW1/4Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- (C-17- 5)15baa- 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- (C-16- 4)18bda- 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- (C-16- 5)10bbc-S1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- DELTA EGG FARM, LLCCAFO · 6.6 mi
- (C-17- 6)12dad- 1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- S-TURN WELL T17S R06W SEC12 NE1/4 SE1/4Nitrate · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak City'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 Oak City.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Oak City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Oak City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Oak City
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 Oak City average
Your land is one point inside Oak City
Everything above resolves to Oak City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 746 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 Oak City Average
Oak City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Oak City
- ●One soil character for all of Oak City
- ●Frost dates read at Oak City's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak City, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak City average
How we know this about Oak City
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 Oak City’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 Oak City
When does frost risk typically end in Oak City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak City typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Oak City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak City typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak City sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 4, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak City?
The federal record around Oak City shows 56 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Oak City?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oak City's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak City'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 Oak City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oak City's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 746 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oak City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 18 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak City's boundary and the 746 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oak City'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 Oak City's 746 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 Oak City's 746 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 746 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Oak City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahOak City sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides