Bennington, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bennington, 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 Bennington 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 Bennington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bennington — the short answer
Bennington, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 126 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~126
- 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 5a is Bennington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bennington's 126-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bennington
Each reading below is measured for Bennington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBennington runs about 126 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
MeasuredBennington sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Bennington is in
Bennington sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Bennington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bear Lake County.
What Grows in Bennington
Every plant below cleared Bennington's own zone 5a and its 126-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bennington?
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 Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 18 — 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 Bennington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bennington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12S 44E 09CAC1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- RANCH HAND TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 12S 43E 25DAA1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- MONTPELIER #51900 - ITDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 12S 44E 33DDB1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 12S 44E 33DCC1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- CHARLES C NICHOLLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- LDS Welfare ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- HANSON OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MONTPELIER BISHOP'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- U SAVE CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 12S 43E 35AAD1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bennington'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 Bennington.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Bennington
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bennington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bennington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bennington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bennington — Nitrate (32 sites) and Mining (6 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Bennington
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 Bennington average
Your land is one point inside Bennington
Everything above resolves to Bennington 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 Bennington Average
Bennington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bennington
- ●One soil character for all of Bennington
- ●Frost dates read at Bennington's scale: May 15 to Sep 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bennington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bennington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bennington, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bennington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bennington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bennington average
How we know this about Bennington
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 Bennington’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 Bennington
When does frost risk typically end in Bennington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bennington typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bennington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bennington typically arrives around Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 4, so the watching starts about Aug 19 — about 126 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bennington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bennington sees about 126 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 4, about 91 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bennington?
The federal record around Bennington shows 69 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Bennington?
With about 126 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bennington 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 154 to 182 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bennington's scale — its 5a band and its 126-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bennington'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 Bennington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bennington's own scale — its own ~126-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,159 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bennington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bennington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Sep 18 and the ~126-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bennington, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bennington's boundary and the 4,159 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~126-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bennington's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bennington's 4,159 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bear Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bear Lake 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 Bear Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bennington's 4,159 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bennington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,159 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Bennington-wide figureread your own land →