Lincoln County, in Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with pumpkin, blackberry, lavender, and zucchini — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lincoln County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lincoln 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 Lincoln County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lincoln County — the short answer
Lincoln County, Wyoming: USDA zone 5b, about 96 days between hard freezes, across 2.6M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~96
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.6M 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 5b is Lincoln County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lincoln County's 96-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lincoln County
Across a year, Lincoln County accumulates about 498 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,376 fewer than the middle Wyoming county — ahead of 1 of Wyoming’s 23 counties. 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 Lincoln County
Across Lincoln County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Mantlemine, Langspring, and Quakenasp are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–7.8, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lincoln County
The USDA soil survey maps 92% of Lincoln County as well drained — but another 6% drains differently: 2% poorly drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Mantlemine is the most extensive named soil at 2% of mapped acres, then Langspring (2%) and Quakenasp (1%).
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 Lincoln County
Each reading below is measured for Lincoln 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 Lincoln County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Lincoln County runs about pH 6.3–7.8, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLincoln County runs about 96 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
MeasuredLincoln County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Lincoln County is in
Lincoln County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Wyoming Basin (53%) and Middle Rockies (47%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Lincoln County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lincoln County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 96-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 Lincoln County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 17 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Lincoln County
USGS estimates 7,532 lb of Chlorpyrifos on Lincoln County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,412 lb) and 2,4-d (2,453 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 Lincoln County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lincoln County — 383 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
Closest first, across Lincoln County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Big Park ProspectMining · 8.8 mi
- 24-117-03dad01Nitrate · 9.6 mi
- Ferney Gulch MineMining · 9.9 mi
- Lake Alice DistrictMining · 10.5 mi
- Coantag ProspectMining · 11.1 mi
- WY Department of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.7 mi
- Landslide Dam ProspectMining · 12.1 mi
- Spring Lake Creek ProspectMining · 12.5 mi
- Griggs MineMining · 14.7 mi
- 24-116-35acb01Nitrate · 16.0 mi
- Flying J Travel Plaza #760Underground Storage Tanks · 16.8 mi
- 3-K Towing and RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lincoln 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 Lincoln County.
Total Sites
383
across Lincoln County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Lincoln County
Severity Distribution
across Lincoln County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lincoln County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 178 sites across Lincoln County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lincoln 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 Lincoln County average
Your land is one point inside Lincoln County
Everything above resolves to Lincoln County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.6M 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 Lincoln County Average
Lincoln County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lincoln County
- ●One soil character for all of Lincoln County
- ●Frost dates read at Lincoln County's scale: Jun 13 to Sep 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lincoln County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lincoln County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lincoln County, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lincoln County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lincoln County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lincoln County average
How we know this about Lincoln 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 Lincoln County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lincoln County
When does frost risk typically end in Lincoln County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lincoln County typically lands around Jun 13, 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 Jul 4.
How long is the growing season in Lincoln County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lincoln County sees about 96 frost-free days — roughly Jun 13 through Sep 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 4 to Sep 3, about 61 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lincoln County?
The federal record around Lincoln County is a meaningful one — 383 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (178), the nearest Mining record about 8.8 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Lincoln County?
With about 96 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lincoln County 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 124 to 152 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lincoln County's scale — its 5b band and its 96-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lincoln 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 Lincoln County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Lincoln County's own scale — its own ~96-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 383 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lincoln County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lincoln County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~96-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lincoln CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 383 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 8.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lincoln County's boundary and the 2,608,213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~96-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Lincoln County spans, Wyoming Basin the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lincoln 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 Lincoln County — the ~96 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 Lincoln County's 2,608,213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 383 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 Lincoln Countyread your own land →