Basin, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Basin, 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 Basin 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 Basin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Basin — the short answer
Basin, Wyoming: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 4b is Basin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Basin's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Basin
Each reading below is measured for Basin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBasin runs about 166 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
MeasuredBasin sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Basin is in
Basin sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Basin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Big Horn County.
What Grows in Basin
Every plant below cleared Basin's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Basin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Basin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Basin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BASIN SCHOOL CHEMICALSSuperfund · 300 ft
- Big Horn County School District #4Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Charles Roger CauffmanUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Big Horn Rural Electric CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Torchlight FieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Basin RMLR (QK3 RMLR)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Basin ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Big Horn CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Wyoming Highway DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WYOMING DOTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Harper's Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HARPER'S SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Basin'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 Basin.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Basin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Basin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Basin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Basin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Basin — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (46 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Basin
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 Basin average
Your land is one point inside Basin
Everything above resolves to Basin 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 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 Basin Average
Basin Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Basin
- ●One soil character for all of Basin
- ●Frost dates read at Basin's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Basin's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Basin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Basin, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Basin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Basin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Basin average
How we know this about Basin
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 Basin’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 Basin
When does frost risk typically end in Basin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Basin typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Basin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Basin typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Basin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Basin sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 27, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Basin?
The federal record around Basin is a meaningful one — 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Superfund 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 I protect my plants from frost in Basin?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Basin's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Basin'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 Basin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Basin's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,512 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Basin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Basin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 11 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Basin, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Basin's boundary and the 1,512 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Basin's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Basin's 1,512 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Big Horn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Big Horn 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 Big Horn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Basin's 1,512 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Basin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,512 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Basin-wide figureread your own land →
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