Blanchard, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blanchard, 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 Blanchard 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 Blanchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blanchard — the short answer
Blanchard, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 952 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 952 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 6b is Blanchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blanchard's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blanchard
Each reading below is measured for Blanchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlanchard runs about 173 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
MeasuredBlanchard sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Blanchard is in
Blanchard sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Blanchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bonner County.
What Grows in Blanchard
Every plant below cleared Blanchard's own zone 6b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blanchard?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Blanchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blanchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CDS STONERIDGE ASSOCIATION LAND, L.C.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- E-Z STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOODOO MTN MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BLANCHARD TRADING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 54N 05W 18AAA1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 54N 05W 22ACA1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 54N 05W 25BAD1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 55N 05W 31BBC1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- Spirit Lake HICOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 54N 04W 19BCD1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 55N 05W 19CDC1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 55N 05W 19BDD1-DESTROYEDNitrate · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blanchard'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 Blanchard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blanchard, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Blanchard. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Blanchard
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 Blanchard average
Your land is one point inside Blanchard
Everything above resolves to Blanchard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 952 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 Blanchard Average
Blanchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Blanchard
- ●One soil character for all of Blanchard
- ●Frost dates read at Blanchard's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blanchard's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blanchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blanchard, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blanchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blanchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blanchard average
How we know this about Blanchard
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 Blanchard’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 Blanchard
When does frost risk typically end in Blanchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchard typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Blanchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchard typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blanchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blanchard sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 30, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blanchard?
The federal record around Blanchard shows 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 I protect my plants from frost in Blanchard?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blanchard's scale — its 6b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blanchard'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 Blanchard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blanchard's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 952 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blanchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blanchard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 14 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blanchard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blanchard's boundary and the 952 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blanchard's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blanchard's 952 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bonner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bonner 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 Bonner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blanchard's 952 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blanchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 952 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Blanchard-wide figureread your own land →
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