Notus, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Notus, 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 Notus 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 Notus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Notus — the short answer
Notus, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 243 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 243 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 Notus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Notus's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Notus
Each reading below is measured for Notus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNotus 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
MeasuredNotus 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 Notus is in
Notus sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Notus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Canyon County.
What Grows in Notus
Every plant below cleared Notus'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 Notus?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Notus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Notus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARDCASTLE EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- NOTUS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RICHARD FAVRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BOISE RIVER PACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BLACK CANYON IRRIGATION DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WOOLERY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MARTIN'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- W/T LAND AND CATTLE INCCAFO · 0.5 mi
- NOTUS SCHOOL DIST #351Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JERRYS REPAIR SERVICEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 05N 04W 34BCB1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 05N 04W 35BBB1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Notus'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 Notus.
Total Sites
670
within ~10 miles of Notus
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Notus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Notus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Notus, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Notus — Nitrate (432 sites) and CAFO (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Notus
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 Notus average
Your land is one point inside Notus
Everything above resolves to Notus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 243 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 Notus Average
Notus Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Notus
- ●One soil character for all of Notus
- ●Frost dates read at Notus's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Notus's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Notus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Notus, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Notus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Notus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Notus average
How we know this about Notus
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 Notus’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 Notus
When does frost risk typically end in Notus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Notus typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Notus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Notus typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Notus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Notus sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 13, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Notus?
The federal record around Notus is a meaningful one — 670 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (432), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Notus?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Notus's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Notus'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 Notus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Notus's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 243 acres it covers and 670 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Notus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Notus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 27 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 670 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Notus, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Notus's boundary and the 243 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 Notus's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Notus's 243 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 Notus's 243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Notus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Notus-wide figureread your own land →