The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) spans USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Park City, Heber, and the Kamas Valley sit barely an hour from Salt Lake yet garden in a different climate: cold high-mountain valleys at zone 5b with roughly 100–115 frost-free days in the county model — a full 1–2 zones and ~100 days shorter than the Wasatch Front bench just over the crest. Cold air pools in these basins and frost runs late into spring and early into fall, so the winning play is short-season and hardy — brassicas, root crops, cold-tolerant greens, and season extension rather than long-season heat lovers. It is a distinct short-season mountain-garden story the warm Wasatch Front page and the statewide average both wash out. Well-matched crops include tomato, blue spruce, cherry, and peach, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) spans Utah.
Your yard isn't all of the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys).
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) spans USDA zones 5b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) — the short answer
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys): USDA zones 5b, 98–111 frost-free days, in Utah.
- USDA zones
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 98–111 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 2
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
Plants matched to the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)'s USDA zones 5b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)’s USDA zones 5b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across two member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Mollisols, at 78% of mapped acres, followed by Inceptisols (9%), Alfisols (9%) and Entisols (4%). Six soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Fewkes, Skutum, and Hades.
93% of those acres are well drained, and another 2% somewhat poorly drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained. Topsoil pH runs 6.3–7.2 between the lowest and the highest county on record.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
6.3–7.2
Hydric soils
3%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Summit County holds the most wetland ground here, at 3% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records93% of the mapped acres across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all two of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) runs pH 6.3–7.2 — near neutral in all two of them.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) — and how to grow with it.
Across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)'s 2 counties the federal record holds 688 documented sites, mostly Nitrate (266), Mining (185) and Underground Storage Tanks (185). The heaviest single county is Summit County, with 375.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 2 counties in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys), two things run higher than the national average across the 2 counties in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) — Mining (185 sites) and Nitrate (266 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).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
Everything above resolves to the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 5b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) Average
Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
- ●One soil character for all of Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)'s 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) average
How we know this about the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
What hardiness zone is the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)?
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) spans USDA hardiness zones 5b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)'s counties mostly run 101 to 108 frost-free days, median 105 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 2 member counties). That 7-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 2 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)?
Across the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys), the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Jun 6 and Jun 9 (median Jun 8), and their first fall freeze between Sep 18 and Sep 22. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Jun 29, and elevation decides which end of a 3-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)?
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)'s conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Blue Spruce, Cherry, Peach, Sego Lily. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) defined?
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) is defined here as a curated cluster of 2 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) cover?
The Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys) spans Utah. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Wasatch Front, Uintah Basin, Cache Valley, Moab / Canyon Country, and Utah's Dixie / St. George share at least one state with the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)'s own scale — the zone 5b band across its footprint, a median 105-day season across its 2 counties and 688 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 375 of them in Summit County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 5b aggregated across all 2 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 2 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 2 counties run 101 to 108 frost-free days, median 105NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 688 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 375 of them in Summit County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 78% Mollisols, topsoil pH 6.3–7.2, area-weighted across its 2 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 5bfrom Utah
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 7-day range your ground sits at — 101 days at one extreme, 108 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Wasatch Back (Park City / Heber Valley high mountain valleys)
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Utah
Utah's populated bench country between the Wasatch range and the lakes — alkaline soils, intense high-desert sun, and irrigated orchard and garden ground along the mountain front.
Utah's Uintah Basin — the Daggett, Duchesne, and Uintah tri-county region defined by the Uintah Basin Association of Governments — is a high-elevation northeastern-Utah basin spanning USDA hardiness zones 5b to 6a, with a frost-free season ranging from roughly 143 days in Daggett to 184 days in Uintah county.
A cool mountain valley straddling the Utah-Idaho line along the Bear River, where USDA zone 6a-6b winters and a short frost-free season of roughly 150 to 165 days shape hardy vegetables, small grains, and cold-tolerant orchard fruit.
Red-rock valley floors along the Colorado where orchards and vineyards work between slickrock walls — a 7a-7b, 200-225-day irrigated pocket with a longer, warmer floor at Moab itself than the surrounding high desert.
Utah's warm corner — the lower Virgin River valley reads a committed 8b with 281-298 frost-free days, a full zone warmer and six-plus weeks longer than the county row averaged over the high plateaus above; the state's one reliable ground for figs, pomegranates, and long-season heat lovers.