Park City, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Park 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 Park 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 Park City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Park City — the short answer
Park City, Utah: USDA zone 5b, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- 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
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Park City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Park City's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Park City
Each reading below is measured for Park City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPark City runs about 138 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
MeasuredPark City 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 Park City is in
Park City sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Park City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summit County.
What Grows in Park City
Every plant below cleared Park City's own zone 5b and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Park City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (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 Park City
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Park City, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Park City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Park City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Monarch ClaimMining · 2000 ft
- OLD PARK CITY DUMPSuperfund · 2100 ft
- SKI RAIL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Garey Shaft and ProspectsMining · 2300 ft
- Silver Creek ProspectMining · 2400 ft
- PLAZA DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MAVERIK #317Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- THE 1725 BONANZA PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BOTTOM VEHICLE MAIN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- IRON HORSE BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Emily ProspectMining · 0.5 mi
- MUNCHKIN WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Park 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 Park City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Park City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Park City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Park City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Park City — Mining (397 sites) and Superfund (11 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.
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 Park 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 Park City average
Your land is one point inside Park City
Everything above resolves to Park City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 city 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 Park City Average
Park City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Park City
- ●One soil character for all of Park City
- ●Frost dates read at Park City's scale: May 16 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Park City's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Park City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Park City, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Park City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Park City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Park City average
How we know this about Park City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Park 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Park City
When does frost risk typically end in Park City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Park City typically lands around May 16, 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 Jun 6.
When is the first frost in Park City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Park City 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 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Park City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Park City sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 17, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Park City?
The federal record around Park City runs heavier than most — 558 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (397), the nearest Mining record about 0.4 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 Park City?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, Park City 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 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Park City's scale — its 5b band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Park 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 Park City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Park City's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,248 acres it covers and 558 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Park City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Park City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Oct 1 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 558 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Park City, the closest Mining record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Park City's boundary and the 14,248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Park City's own centroid, the Wasatch and Uinta MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Park Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Park City's 14,248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summit 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 Summit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Park City's 14,248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Park 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 14,248 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 Park City-wide figureread your own land →