Vernon, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Vernon, 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 Vernon 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 Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vernon — the short answer
Vernon, Utah: USDA zone 5b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- 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 5b is Vernon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vernon's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vernon
Each reading below is measured for Vernon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVernon runs about 142 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
MeasuredVernon 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 Vernon is in
Vernon sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Vernon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tooele County.
What Grows in Vernon
Every plant below cleared Vernon's own zone 5b and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vernon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Vernon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vernon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (C- 8- 5)30daa- 1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- (C- 8- 5)29baa- 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- SILVER SAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VERNON BEEF PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- (C- 8- 5)17ccc- 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- (C- 8- 5)31dad- 4Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- (C- 8- 5)31ccd- 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- (C- 9- 5) 6aab- 2Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- (C- 8- 6)26aaa- 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- (C- 9- 5) 5bbc- 1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- JOE LONGO RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- (C- 8- 5) 6ddc- 1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vernon'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 Vernon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vernon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vernon — Mining (17 sites) and Nitrate (40 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Vernon
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 Vernon average
Your land is one point inside Vernon
Everything above resolves to Vernon 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 Vernon Average
Vernon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Vernon
- ●One soil character for all of Vernon
- ●Frost dates read at Vernon's scale: May 14 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vernon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vernon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vernon, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vernon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vernon average
How we know this about Vernon
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 Vernon’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 Vernon
When does frost risk typically end in Vernon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Vernon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vernon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vernon sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 19, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vernon?
The federal record around Vernon runs heavier than most — 62 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Vernon?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Vernon 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Vernon's scale — its 5b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vernon'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 Vernon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vernon's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,158 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vernon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vernon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Oct 3 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vernon, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vernon's boundary and the 5,158 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vernon'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 Vernon's 5,158 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tooele County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tooele 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 Tooele County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vernon's 5,158 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vernon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,158 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Vernon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahVernon sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides