Council, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Council, 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 Council 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 Council — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Council — the short answer
Council, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 675 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 675 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 6a is Council's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Council's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Council
Each reading below is measured for Council itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCouncil runs about 157 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
MeasuredCouncil sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Council is in
Council sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Council's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Adams County is mostly Blue Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Council
Every plant below cleared Council's own zone 6a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Council?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Council
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Council. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOISE CASCADE SAWMILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HORNET GUARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- US WEST (4)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- OX RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- COUNCIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- COUNCIL CENEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COUNCIL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 16N 01W 10DBD1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- COUNCIL CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BEAR GUARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RUBEN J LAUTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CENEX BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Council'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 Council.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Council
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Council
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Council, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Council — Mining (7 sites) and Nitrate (18 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 Council
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 Council average
Your land is one point inside Council
Everything above resolves to Council as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 675 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 Council Average
Council Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Council
- ●One soil character for all of Council
- ●Frost dates read at Council's scale: May 2 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Council's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Council
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Council, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Council averages can't show:
We read public map data around Council — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Council average
How we know this about Council
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 Council’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 Council
When does frost risk typically end in Council?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Council typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Council?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Council typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Council?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Council sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 22, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Council?
The federal record around Council is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Council?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Council's scale — its 6a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Council'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 Council’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Council's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 675 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Council's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Council's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 6 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Council, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Council's boundary and the 675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Council sits in the Snake River Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Council's 675 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Council's 675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Council you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Council-wide figureread your own land →
More in Idaho
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