Albany, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with pumpkin, cranberry, lavender, and zucchini — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Albany, 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 Albany 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 Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Albany — the short answer
Albany, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 102 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~102
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Albany's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Albany's 102-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Albany
Each reading below is measured for Albany itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlbany runs about 102 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
MeasuredAlbany 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 Albany is in
Albany sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Albany's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Albany County is mostly Wyoming Basin. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Albany
Every plant below cleared Albany's own zone 5a and its 102-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Albany?
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 May 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Albany
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Albany. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Albany LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 0.8 mi
- 14-077-18adc01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 15-078-36ddd01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 15-078-26cca01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Lake Owen ComplexMining · 4.0 mi
- Unidentified ProspectMining · 4.8 mi
- Cuprite MineMining · 6.1 mi
- Columbine MineMining · 6.2 mi
- Queen MineMining · 6.3 mi
- Platinum City MineMining · 6.3 mi
- Gold Crater MineMining · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Albany'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 Albany.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Albany
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Albany
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Albany, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Albany — Mining (33 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Albany
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 Albany average
Your land is one point inside Albany
Everything above resolves to Albany as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 town 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 Albany Average
Albany Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Albany
- ●One soil character for all of Albany
- ●Frost dates read at Albany's scale: Jun 6 to Sep 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Albany's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Albany
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Albany, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Albany averages can't show:
We read public map data around Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Albany average
How we know this about Albany
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Albany’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Albany
When does frost risk typically end in Albany?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Albany typically lands around Jun 6, 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 Jun 27.
When is the first frost in Albany?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Albany typically arrives around Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 2, so the watching starts about Aug 17 — about 102 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Albany?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Albany sees about 102 frost-free days — roughly Jun 6 through Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 27 to Sep 2, about 67 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Albany?
The federal record around Albany shows 66 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Albany?
With about 102 frost-free days between hard freezes, Albany 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 130 to 158 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Albany's scale — its 5a band and its 102-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Albany'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 Albany’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Albany's own scale — its own ~102-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,022 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Albany's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Albany's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 6 and Sep 16 and the ~102-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Albany, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Albany's boundary and the 7,022 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~102-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Albany sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Albany's 7,022 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Albany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Albany County
- The growing challenges every Wyoming grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wyoming
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Albany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Albany's 7,022 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Albany you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,022 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Albany-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingAlbany sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides