Newdale, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Newdale, 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 Newdale 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 Newdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newdale — the short answer
Newdale, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 143 days between hard freezes, across 118 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~143
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 118 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 5a is Newdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newdale's 143-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newdale
Each reading below is measured for Newdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewdale runs about 143 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
MeasuredNewdale sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Newdale is in
Newdale sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Newdale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fremont County is mostly Middle Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Newdale
Every plant below cleared Newdale's own zone 5a and its 143-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newdale?
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 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 Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Newdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TATER VALLEY CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MELVIN SCHWENDIMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- VAL SCHWENDIMAN FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NEWDALE SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TETON DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DEAN SCHWENDIMAN & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DARWIN KLINGLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 06N 42E 06BCB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 06N 41E 15ACA1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 07N 41E 24ACA1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- PAPPY'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 06N 42E 07CDA1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newdale'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 Newdale.
Total Sites
180
within ~10 miles of Newdale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newdale, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Newdale. 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 Newdale
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 Newdale average
Your land is one point inside Newdale
Everything above resolves to Newdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 118 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 Newdale Average
Newdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Newdale
- ●One soil character for all of Newdale
- ●Frost dates read at Newdale's scale: May 10 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newdale's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newdale, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newdale average
How we know this about Newdale
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 Newdale’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 Newdale
When does frost risk typically end in Newdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newdale 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 Newdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newdale typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 143 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newdale sees about 143 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 16, about 108 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newdale?
The federal record around Newdale shows 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Newdale?
With about 143 frost-free days between hard freezes, Newdale 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 171 to 199 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 Newdale's scale — its 5a band and its 143-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newdale'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 Newdale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Newdale's own scale — its own ~143-day season between 28°F freezes, the 118 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 30 and the ~143-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newdale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newdale's boundary and the 118 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~143-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Newdale 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 Newdale's 118 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fremont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fremont 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 Fremont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newdale's 118 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 118 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 Newdale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Idaho
Nearby growing guides