Spring Lake, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Lake, 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 Spring Lake 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 Spring Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Lake — the short answer
Spring Lake, Utah: USDA zone 7a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Spring Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Lake's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Lake
Each reading below is measured for Spring Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Lake runs about 197 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
MeasuredSpring Lake 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 Spring Lake is in
Spring Lake sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Spring Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Utah County is mostly Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Spring Lake
Every plant below cleared Spring Lake's own zone 7a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Lake?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Spring Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (D- 9- 2)20ccc- 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- SPRING LAKE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- (D- 9- 2)29acd- 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- (D- 9- 1)25ada- 3Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- (D- 9- 2)29dac- 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Elsie Jane DriftMining · 1.1 mi
- PAYSON FARMS (DAIRY)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- El Dorado MineMining · 1.2 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #5167Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- SALLY BEAUTY SUPPLY #3774Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- ARNIE B'S CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GAS-N-GO #18Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Lake'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 Spring Lake.
Total Sites
281
within ~10 miles of Spring Lake
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Spring Lake — Mining (38 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Spring Lake
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 Spring Lake average
Your land is one point inside Spring Lake
Everything above resolves to Spring Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Spring Lake Average
Spring Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Spring Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Lake's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Lake, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Lake average
How we know this about Spring Lake
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 Spring Lake’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 Spring Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Lake typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Spring Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Lake typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Lake sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 13, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Lake?
The federal record around Spring Lake runs heavier than most — 281 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (114), the nearest Nitrate 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 Spring Lake?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Lake'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 Spring Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Lake's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,048 acres it covers and 281 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 27 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 281 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Lake's boundary and the 1,048 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Spring Lake sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Lake's 1,048 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Utah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Utah 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 Utah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Lake's 1,048 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,048 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Spring Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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