Hope, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hope, 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 Hope 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 Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hope — the short answer
Hope, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 625 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 625 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 Hope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hope's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hope
Each reading below is measured for Hope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHope runs about 183 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
MeasuredHope 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 Hope is in
Hope sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Hope's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bonner County.
What Grows in Hope
Every plant below cleared Hope's own zone 6b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hope?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Hope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HI HOPES MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HOPE CENTRAL OFFICE (1150-BO1)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PEND OREILLE LANDING RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Walter ProspectMining · 1.1 mi
- ELLISPORT BAY MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PEND OREILLE SHORES PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HOLIDAY SHORES MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Morning StarMining · 1.3 mi
- Morning Star ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- Pend OreilleMining · 1.8 mi
- HOPE MARINE SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 57N 01E 21DCD1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hope'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 Hope.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Hope
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hope
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hope
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hope, Mining runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Hope. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Hope
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 Hope average
Your land is one point inside Hope
Everything above resolves to Hope as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 625 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 Hope Average
Hope Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hope
- ●One soil character for all of Hope
- ●Frost dates read at Hope's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hope's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hope, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hope average
How we know this about Hope
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 Hope’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 Hope
When does frost risk typically end in Hope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hope typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Hope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hope typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hope sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 6, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hope?
The federal record around Hope runs heavier than most — 138 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hope?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hope's scale — its 6b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hope'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 Hope’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hope's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 625 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hope's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 20 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hope, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hope's boundary and the 625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hope's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hope's 625 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bonner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bonner 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 Bonner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hope's 625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 625 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hope-wide figureread your own land →
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