Teton, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Teton, 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 Teton 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 Teton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Teton — the short answer
Teton, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 441 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- 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
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 441 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 Teton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Teton's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Teton
Each reading below is measured for Teton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTeton runs about 144 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
MeasuredTeton 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 Teton is in
Teton sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Teton'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 Teton
Every plant below cleared Teton's own zone 5a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Teton?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Teton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Teton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAPPY MOTORINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PAPPY'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Go-C-GoeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 07N 40E 36DDA1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 07N 40E 24DDA1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- FLYING H CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 06N 40E 11CDCC1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- NED'S MOODY CREEK PRODUCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- TATER VALLEY CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MEYERS BROS FEED LOT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- SUGAR CITY MTCE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MELVIN SCHWENDIMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Teton'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 Teton.
Total Sites
283
within ~10 miles of Teton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Teton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Teton
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Teton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 124 sites within ~10 miles of Teton. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Teton
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 Teton average
Your land is one point inside Teton
Everything above resolves to Teton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 441 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 Teton Average
Teton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Teton
- ●One soil character for all of Teton
- ●Frost dates read at Teton's scale: May 9 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Teton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Teton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Teton, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Teton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Teton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Teton average
How we know this about Teton
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 Teton’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 Teton
When does frost risk typically end in Teton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Teton typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Teton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Teton 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 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Teton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Teton sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 16, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Teton?
The federal record around Teton is a meaningful one — 283 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (135), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Teton?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Teton 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Teton's scale — its 5a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Teton'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 Teton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Teton's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 441 acres it covers and 283 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Teton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Teton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Sep 30 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 283 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Teton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Teton's boundary and the 441 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Teton 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 Teton's 441 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 Teton's 441 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Teton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 441 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 Teton-wide figureread your own land →