Eagle, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Eagle, 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 Eagle 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 Eagle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eagle — the short answer
Eagle, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 29K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 29K 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 7a is Eagle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagle
Each reading below is measured for Eagle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagle runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEagle sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Eagle is in
Eagle sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Eagle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ada County.
What Grows in Eagle
Every plant below cleared Eagle's own zone 7a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagle?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Eagle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAGLE, CITY OF (EASTERN ZONE)PFAS · 1.1 mi
- EAGLE, CITY OF (WESTERN ZONE)PFAS · 1.1 mi
- 05N 01W 16DBC1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 06N 01W 35CCA1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 05N 01W 09CCD2Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 05N 01W 16CBD1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 05N 01W 09CCD1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 05N 01E 30CAC1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 05N 01W 36ABB1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 05N 01W 34ACAC1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 05N 01W 28DDC5Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 05N 01W 28DDC4Nitrate · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagle'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 Eagle.
Total Sites
764
within ~10 miles of Eagle
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eagle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagle, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 606 sites within ~10 miles of Eagle. 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 Eagle
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 Eagle average
Your land is one point inside Eagle
Everything above resolves to Eagle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 29K 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 Eagle Average
Eagle Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Eagle
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle average
How we know this about Eagle
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 Eagle’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 Eagle
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle typically lands around Apr 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 1.
When is the first frost in Eagle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle?
The federal record around Eagle runs heavier than most — 764 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (606), the nearest PFAS record about 1.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Eagle?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eagle's scale — its 7a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle'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 Eagle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eagle's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 28,907 acres it covers and 764 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 28 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 764 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagle, the closest PFAS record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagle's boundary and the 28,907 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eagle's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eagle's 28,907 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ada 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 Ada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagle's 28,907 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,907 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.1 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 Eagle-wide figureread your own land →