Gannett, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Gannett, 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 Gannett 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 Gannett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gannett — the short answer
Gannett, Idaho: USDA zone 5b, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Gannett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gannett's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gannett
Each reading below is measured for Gannett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGannett runs about 145 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
MeasuredGannett sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Gannett is in
Gannett sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Gannett's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Blaine County is mostly Idaho Batholith. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gannett
Every plant below cleared Gannett's own zone 5b and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gannett?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Gannett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gannett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01S 19E 03DDC3Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 01S 19E 01CCC1-DESTROYEDNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 01S 19E 03DDB1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- ARLENE GIVENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 01S 19E 22AAA1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 01S 19E 03CCB1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 01S 19E 13AAD1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 01S 19E 21AAA1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 01S 19E 22CAA1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 01S 20E 19BDA1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 01S 20E 19ACC1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 01S 19E 05ACD1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gannett'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 Gannett.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Gannett
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gannett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gannett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gannett, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gannett — Mining (38 sites) and Nitrate (96 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 Gannett
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 Gannett average
Your land is one point inside Gannett
Everything above resolves to Gannett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Gannett Average
Gannett Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Gannett
- ●One soil character for all of Gannett
- ●Frost dates read at Gannett's scale: May 10 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gannett's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gannett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gannett, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gannett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gannett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gannett average
How we know this about Gannett
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 Gannett’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 Gannett
When does frost risk typically end in Gannett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gannett 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 Gannett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gannett typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gannett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gannett sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 18, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gannett?
The federal record around Gannett runs heavier than most — 151 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (96), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Gannett?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Gannett 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 173 to 201 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 Gannett's scale — its 5b band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gannett'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 Gannett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gannett's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,677 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gannett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gannett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 2 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gannett, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gannett's boundary and the 1,677 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gannett 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 Gannett's 1,677 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blaine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blaine 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 Blaine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gannett's 1,677 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gannett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,677 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Gannett-wide figureread your own land →