Big Piney, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and okra. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Big Piney, 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 Big Piney 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 Big Piney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Big Piney — the short answer
Big Piney, Wyoming: USDA zone 4a, about 97 days between hard freezes, across 325 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~97
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 325 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 4a is Big Piney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Piney's 97-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Piney
Each reading below is measured for Big Piney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Piney runs about 97 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
MeasuredBig Piney sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Big Piney is in
Big Piney sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Big Piney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sublette County.
What Grows in Big Piney
Every plant below cleared Big Piney's own zone 4a and its 97-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Piney?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 9 — 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 Big Piney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Piney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 30-111-31bcc01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 30-111-31 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Red Hill Compressor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Fogarty Creek Compressor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Dry Piney Compressor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CenturyTelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- IME ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Tanner Rentals (Formerly Gordon Auto)Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Loaf 'N Jug #138Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Former Big Piney TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Big Piney All American FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DAVE BABCOCK TRUCKING LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Piney'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 Big Piney.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Big Piney
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Piney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Piney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Piney, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Big Piney. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Big Piney
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 Big Piney average
Your land is one point inside Big Piney
Everything above resolves to Big Piney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 325 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 Big Piney Average
Big Piney Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Big Piney
- ●One soil character for all of Big Piney
- ●Frost dates read at Big Piney's scale: Jun 4 to Sep 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Piney's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Piney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Piney, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Piney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Piney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Piney average
How we know this about Big Piney
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 Big Piney’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 Big Piney
When does frost risk typically end in Big Piney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Piney typically lands around Jun 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Big Piney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Piney typically arrives around Sep 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 26, so the watching starts about Aug 10 — about 97 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Piney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Piney sees about 97 frost-free days — roughly Jun 4 through Sep 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 25 to Aug 26, about 62 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Piney?
The federal record around Big Piney shows 65 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Big Piney?
With about 97 frost-free days between hard freezes, Big Piney 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 125 to 153 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Big Piney's scale — its 4a band and its 97-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Piney'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 Big Piney’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Piney's own scale — its own ~97-day season between 28°F freezes, the 325 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Piney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Piney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 4 and Sep 9 and the ~97-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Piney, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Piney's boundary and the 325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~97-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Piney's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Piney's 325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sublette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sublette 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 Sublette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Piney's 325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Piney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Big Piney-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingBig Piney sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.