Wallace, 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.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Wallace, 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 Wallace 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 Wallace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wallace — the short answer
Wallace, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 581 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 581 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 Wallace's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wallace's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wallace
Each reading below is measured for Wallace itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWallace runs about 168 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
MeasuredWallace 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 Wallace is in
Wallace sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Wallace's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shoshone County.
What Grows in Wallace
Every plant below cleared Wallace's own zone 6b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wallace?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Wallace
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wallace. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF WALLACE IDAHOUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Frank's AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Shoshone MineMining · 700 ft
- HICO GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALLACE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BUILDING MAINTENANCE & SUPPLY/MINE SUPPLY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FOOD CENTER THRIFT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DISTRICT TRANSPORTATION GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JACK WAITE MINE & MILL SITESuperfund · 950 ft
- FIRST SECURITY BANK OF IDAHOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ESTATE OF SAM M BROOKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wallace'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 Wallace.
Total Sites
633
within ~10 miles of Wallace
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wallace
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wallace
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wallace, Mining runs higher than the national average — 446 sites within ~10 miles of Wallace. 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 Wallace
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 Wallace average
Your land is one point inside Wallace
Everything above resolves to Wallace as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 581 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 Wallace Average
Wallace Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wallace
- ●One soil character for all of Wallace
- ●Frost dates read at Wallace's scale: May 1 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wallace's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wallace
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wallace, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wallace averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wallace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wallace average
How we know this about Wallace
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 Wallace’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 Wallace
When does frost risk typically end in Wallace?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wallace typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Wallace?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wallace typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wallace?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wallace sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 2, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wallace?
The federal record around Wallace runs heavier than most — 633 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (446), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wallace?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wallace's scale — its 6b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wallace'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 Wallace’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wallace's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 581 acres it covers and 633 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wallace's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wallace's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 16 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 633 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wallace, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wallace's boundary and the 581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wallace's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wallace's 581 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shoshone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shoshone 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 Shoshone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wallace's 581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wallace you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 581 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 Wallace-wide figureread your own land →
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