South Willard, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in South Willard, 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 South Willard 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 South Willard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Willard — the short answer
South Willard, Utah: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- 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 7a is South Willard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Willard's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Willard
Each reading below is measured for South Willard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Willard runs about 212 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
MeasuredSouth Willard sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 South Willard is in
South Willard sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at South Willard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Box Elder County.
What Grows in South Willard
Every plant below cleared South Willard's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Willard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 South Willard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Willard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLARD DAIRY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Trigon C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- JBP-MAQUIRE PITBrownfields · 2500 ft
- (B- 7- 2)10dbd- 1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- (B- 7- 2) 2cbd- 8Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- (B- 7- 2) 3dad- 1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CJD HAULINGBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- (B- 7- 2) 2cba- 5Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- LARKIN CATTLE COCAFO · 1.2 mi
- UTAH POWER & LIGHT COMPANY BEN LOMOND SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- (B- 7- 2) 9aab- 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- SMITH & EDWARDS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Willard'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 South Willard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Willard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Willard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Willard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Willard — PFAS (7 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in South Willard
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 South Willard average
Your land is one point inside South Willard
Everything above resolves to South Willard 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 South Willard Average
South Willard Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across South Willard
- ●One soil character for all of South Willard
- ●Frost dates read at South Willard's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Willard's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Willard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Willard, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Willard averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Willard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Willard average
How we know this about South Willard
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 South Willard’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 South Willard
When does frost risk typically end in South Willard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Willard typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in South Willard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Willard typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Willard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Willard sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 16, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Willard?
The federal record around South Willard runs heavier than most — 492 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (242), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in South Willard?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Willard's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Willard'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 South Willard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Willard's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,583 acres it covers and 492 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Willard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Willard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 30 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 492 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Willard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Willard's boundary and the 3,583 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Willard'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 South Willard's 3,583 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Box Elder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Box Elder 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 Box Elder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Willard's 3,583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Willard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,583 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 South Willard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahSouth Willard sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides