Bloomington, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bloomington, 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 Bloomington 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 Bloomington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bloomington — the short answer
Bloomington, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 609 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 609 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 Bloomington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloomington's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloomington
Each reading below is measured for Bloomington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBloomington runs about 138 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
MeasuredBloomington 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 Bloomington is in
Bloomington sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Bloomington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bear Lake County.
What Grows in Bloomington
Every plant below cleared Bloomington's own zone 5a and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloomington?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — 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 Bloomington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloomington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KAREL S THOMASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 14S 43E 35BBA1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Paris-BloomingtonMining · 1.8 mi
- PARIS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DOROTHY WATTERSON ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CARIBOU TARGHEE NATIONAL FOREST PARIS WORK CENTERSuperfund · 2.4 mi
- CONSOLIDATED MINESuperfund · 2.4 mi
- TOLANDS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 14S 43E 09BDCC1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CARLSEN'S PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 15S 43E 02AAC1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- Worm Creek ProspectMining · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloomington'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 Bloomington.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloomington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloomington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bloomington — Mining (9 sites) and Nitrate (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
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 Bloomington
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 Bloomington average
Your land is one point inside Bloomington
Everything above resolves to Bloomington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 609 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 city 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 Bloomington Average
Bloomington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bloomington
- ●One soil character for all of Bloomington
- ●Frost dates read at Bloomington's scale: May 10 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloomington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloomington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloomington, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloomington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloomington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloomington average
How we know this about Bloomington
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bloomington’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Bloomington
When does frost risk typically end in Bloomington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomington typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Bloomington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomington typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloomington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloomington sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 11, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloomington?
The federal record around Bloomington is a meaningful one — 59 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Bloomington?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bloomington 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 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bloomington's scale — its 5a band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloomington'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 Bloomington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bloomington's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 609 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloomington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bloomington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 25 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloomington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloomington's boundary and the 609 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bloomington's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bloomington's 609 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 Bloomington's 609 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloomington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 609 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bloomington-wide figureread your own land →