Deary, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Deary, 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 Deary 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 Deary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deary — the short answer
Deary, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 421 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 421 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 Deary's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deary's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deary
Each reading below is measured for Deary itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeary 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
MeasuredDeary 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 Deary is in
Deary sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Deary's own centroid rather than borrowed from Latah County.
What Grows in Deary
Every plant below cleared Deary'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 Deary?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Deary
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deary. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEARY CENTRAL OFFICE (1080-BO2)Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CROSSROADS CONVIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- White Pine FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DEARY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NORTH LATAH COUNTY HIGHWAY DIST (1)Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- N LATAH HWY DEARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LATAH COUNTY GRAIN GROWER (2)Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- B & K TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF LANDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 40N 02W 21ACC1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- LOYAL FLEENERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 40N 01W 20BAC1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deary'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 Deary.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deary
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deary
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deary, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deary — Mining (19 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). 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.
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 Deary
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 Deary average
Your land is one point inside Deary
Everything above resolves to Deary as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 421 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 Deary Average
Deary Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Deary
- ●One soil character for all of Deary
- ●Frost dates read at Deary's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deary's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deary
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deary, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deary averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deary average
How we know this about Deary
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 Deary’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 Deary
When does frost risk typically end in Deary?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deary typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Deary?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deary typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deary?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deary sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 1, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deary?
The federal record around Deary shows 62 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Deary?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deary's scale — its 6b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deary'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 Deary’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deary's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 421 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deary's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deary's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 15 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deary, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deary's boundary and the 421 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 Deary's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deary's 421 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Latah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Latah 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 Latah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deary's 421 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deary you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 421 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Deary-wide figureread your own land →
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