Wardner, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wardner, 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 Wardner 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 Wardner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wardner — the short answer
Wardner, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 558 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 558 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 Wardner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wardner's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wardner
Each reading below is measured for Wardner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWardner runs about 159 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
MeasuredWardner 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 Wardner is in
Wardner sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Wardner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shoshone County.
What Grows in Wardner
Every plant below cleared Wardner's own zone 6b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wardner?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Wardner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wardner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- West Coeur D'Alene DistrictMining · 950 ft
- Bunker Chance MineMining · 1000 ft
- ShoshoneMining · 1900 ft
- CITY OF WARDNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SILVER NEEDLE INC/LARRY SUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Stem Winder MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Sandow MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Sandow ProspectMining · 0.5 mi
- KELLOGG CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Last Chance MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Tyler MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Phil Sheridan MineMining · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wardner'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 Wardner.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wardner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wardner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wardner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wardner — Mining (250 sites) and Nitrate (244 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wardner
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 Wardner average
Your land is one point inside Wardner
Everything above resolves to Wardner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 558 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 Wardner Average
Wardner Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wardner
- ●One soil character for all of Wardner
- ●Frost dates read at Wardner's scale: May 8 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wardner's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wardner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wardner, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wardner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wardner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wardner average
How we know this about Wardner
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 Wardner’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 Wardner
When does frost risk typically end in Wardner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wardner typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Wardner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wardner typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wardner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wardner sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 30, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wardner?
The federal record around Wardner runs heavier than most — 579 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (250), the nearest Mining record about 0.2 miles 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 Wardner?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wardner's scale — its 6b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wardner'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 Wardner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wardner's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 558 acres it covers and 579 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wardner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wardner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 14 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 579 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wardner, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wardner's boundary and the 558 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wardner's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wardner's 558 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 Wardner's 558 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wardner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 558 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Wardner-wide figureread your own land →
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