Greenleaf, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Greenleaf, 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 Greenleaf 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 Greenleaf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Greenleaf — the short answer
Greenleaf, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 493 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 Greenleaf's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greenleaf's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greenleaf
Each reading below is measured for Greenleaf itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreenleaf runs about 206 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
MeasuredGreenleaf 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 Greenleaf is in
Greenleaf sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Greenleaf's own centroid rather than borrowed from Canyon County.
What Grows in Greenleaf
Every plant below cleared Greenleaf's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greenleaf?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Greenleaf
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greenleaf. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREENLEAF STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VILLAGE GREEN RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 04N 04W 21CAA2Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 04N 04W 16DDDD1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 04N 04W 21DCD1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 04N 04W 15CDDD2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 04N 04W 15CDDD1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 04N 04W 28ACB2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 04N 04W 17ADC1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 04N 04W 15DBB1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- FORTERRA STRUCTURAL PRECAST CALDWELLToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- VALLEY AGRONOMICS LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greenleaf'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 Greenleaf.
Total Sites
716
within ~10 miles of Greenleaf
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greenleaf
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greenleaf
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greenleaf, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Greenleaf — Nitrate (456 sites) and CAFO (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Greenleaf
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 Greenleaf average
Your land is one point inside Greenleaf
Everything above resolves to Greenleaf as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 493 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 Greenleaf Average
Greenleaf Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Greenleaf
- ●One soil character for all of Greenleaf
- ●Frost dates read at Greenleaf's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greenleaf's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greenleaf
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greenleaf, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greenleaf averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greenleaf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greenleaf average
How we know this about Greenleaf
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 Greenleaf’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 Greenleaf
When does frost risk typically end in Greenleaf?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greenleaf typically lands around Apr 5, 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 Apr 26.
When is the first frost in Greenleaf?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greenleaf 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 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greenleaf?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greenleaf sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 14, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greenleaf?
The federal record around Greenleaf is a meaningful one — 716 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (456), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Greenleaf?
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 Greenleaf's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greenleaf'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 Greenleaf’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Greenleaf's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 493 acres it covers and 716 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greenleaf's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greenleaf's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 28 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 716 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greenleaf, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greenleaf's boundary and the 493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greenleaf's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Greenleaf's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Canyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Canyon 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 Canyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greenleaf's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greenleaf you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Greenleaf-wide figureread your own land →