Banks, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Banks, 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 Banks 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 Banks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Banks — the short answer
Banks, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- 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 Banks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Banks's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Banks
Each reading below is measured for Banks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBanks runs about 188 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
MeasuredBanks 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 Banks is in
Banks sits in the Idaho Batholith — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Banks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boise County.
What Grows in Banks
Every plant below cleared Banks's own zone 7a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Banks?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Banks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Banks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BANKS #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BANKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- IDAHO TRANSPORTATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BANKS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- H.G. ClaimsMining · 6.7 mi
- WEILMUNSTER PITToxics Release Inventory · 7.8 mi
- BOISE COUNTY ROAD DIST 3Underground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- PACKER JOHN MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- 09N 04E 15CCA1Nitrate · 8.2 mi
- GARDEN VALLEY WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- SIX MILE PROJECT CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- Blue RockMining · 8.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Banks'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 Banks.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Banks
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Banks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Banks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Banks, Mining runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Banks. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Banks
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 Banks average
Your land is one point inside Banks
Everything above resolves to Banks 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 Banks Average
Banks Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Banks
- ●One soil character for all of Banks
- ●Frost dates read at Banks's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Banks's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Banks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Banks, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Banks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Banks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Banks average
How we know this about Banks
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 Banks’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 Banks
When does frost risk typically end in Banks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Banks typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Banks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Banks typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Banks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Banks sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 10, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Banks?
The federal record around Banks is a meaningful one — 28 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Banks?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Banks's scale — its 7a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Banks'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 Banks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Banks's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,414 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Banks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Banks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 24 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Banks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Banks's boundary and the 1,414 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Banks's own centroid, the Idaho BatholithUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Banks's 1,414 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boise County
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Boise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Banks's 1,414 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Banks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,414 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Banks-wide figureread your own land →
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