Goshen County, in Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Goshen County lies within the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Goshen County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Goshen County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Goshen County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Goshen County — the short answer
Goshen County, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 1.4M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.4M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Goshen County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goshen County's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Goshen County
Across a year, Goshen County accumulates about 2,340 growing degree days above 50°F, about 466 more than the middle Wyoming county — ahead of every other Wyoming county. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Goshen County
Across Goshen County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Mitchell, Dwyer, and Jayem are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Goshen County
The USDA soil survey maps 66% of Goshen County as well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 22% excessively drained, 3% somewhat excessively drained.
Mitchell is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Dwyer (9%) and Jayem (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Goshen County
Each reading below is measured for Goshen County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Goshen County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Goshen County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGoshen County runs about 151 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
MeasuredGoshen County 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 Goshen County is in
Goshen County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Goshen County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Goshen County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 151-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile.
Is it too late to plant in Goshen County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Goshen County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Goshen County
USGS estimates 39,686 lb of Glyphosate on Goshen County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (25,477 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (19,402 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Goshen County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Goshen County — 541 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Goshen County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Goshen County
Closest first, across Goshen County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 25-062-30dba02Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 25-062-30dba01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- LEWIS FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.6 mi
- 25-062-29abc01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- LANPHIER, INC.CAFO · 2.5 mi
- 25-062-34bcb01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- TORRINGTON HIDE AND METALBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 24-062-19abb01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Ty's PitstopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 25-063-23aad01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Town of LingleUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Goshen County School District #1 - Lingle Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goshen County'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 Goshen County.
Total Sites
541
across Goshen County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Severity Distribution
across Goshen County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goshen County, two things run higher than the national average across Goshen County — Nitrate (374 sites) and CAFO (11 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Goshen County
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 Goshen County average
Your land is one point inside Goshen County
Everything above resolves to Goshen County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.4M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Goshen County Average
Goshen County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Goshen County
- ●One soil character for all of Goshen County
- ●Frost dates read at Goshen County's scale: May 4 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goshen County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Goshen County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goshen County, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goshen County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goshen County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goshen County average
How we know this about Goshen County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Goshen County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Goshen County
When does frost risk typically end in Goshen County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goshen County typically lands around May 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 May 25.
How long is the growing season in Goshen County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goshen County sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 18, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goshen County?
The federal record around Goshen County is a meaningful one — 541 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (374), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Goshen County's scale — its 5a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goshen County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Wyoming's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Goshen County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Goshen County's own scale — its own ~151-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 541 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goshen County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goshen County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Goshen CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 541 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Goshen County's boundary and the 1,424,391 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Goshen County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Goshen County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Goshen County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Wyoming grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wyoming
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Goshen County — the ~151 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goshen County's 1,424,391 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 541 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Goshen Countyread your own land →