Ponderay, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Ponderay, 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 Ponderay 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 Ponderay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ponderay — the short answer
Ponderay, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6b is Ponderay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ponderay's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ponderay
Each reading below is measured for Ponderay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPonderay runs about 177 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
MeasuredPonderay 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 Ponderay is in
Ponderay sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Ponderay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bonner County.
What Grows in Ponderay
Every plant below cleared Ponderay's own zone 6b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ponderay?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Ponderay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ponderay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PONDERAY PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VAL GRIGGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ELKS GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WASTE MANAGEMENT OF IDAHO - SANDPOINTBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SANDPOINT GAS SHED 1480-BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CYGNUS INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE #1810Brownfields · 2100 ft
- ANDERSONS AUTOBODY INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZSDPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ALPINE MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ROKSTAD FORD MERCURYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TESORO WEST COAST MIRASTAR # 62018Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ponderay'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 Ponderay.
Total Sites
174
within ~10 miles of Ponderay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ponderay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ponderay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ponderay, Mining runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Ponderay. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Ponderay
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 Ponderay average
Your land is one point inside Ponderay
Everything above resolves to Ponderay 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 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 Ponderay Average
Ponderay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ponderay
- ●One soil character for all of Ponderay
- ●Frost dates read at Ponderay's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ponderay's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ponderay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ponderay, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ponderay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ponderay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ponderay average
How we know this about Ponderay
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 Ponderay’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 Ponderay
When does frost risk typically end in Ponderay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ponderay typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ponderay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ponderay typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ponderay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ponderay sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 29, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ponderay?
The federal record around Ponderay is a meaningful one — 174 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), 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 Ponderay?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ponderay's scale — its 6b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ponderay'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 Ponderay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ponderay's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,879 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ponderay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ponderay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 13 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ponderay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ponderay's boundary and the 1,879 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ponderay's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ponderay's 1,879 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 Ponderay's 1,879 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ponderay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,879 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 Ponderay-wide figureread your own land →
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