Natrona County, in Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Natrona County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Natrona 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 Natrona County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Natrona County — the short answer
Natrona County, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 3.4M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 3.4M 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 Natrona County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Natrona County's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Natrona County
Across a year, Natrona County accumulates about 1,874 growing degree days above 50°F, right at the Wyoming middle — ahead of 11 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 Natrona County
Across Natrona County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Hiland, Keyner, and Orpha are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Natrona County
The USDA soil survey maps 91% of Natrona County as well drained — but another 7% drains differently: 4% excessively drained, 3% somewhat excessively drained.
Hiland is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Keyner (4%) and Orpha (3%).
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 Natrona County
Each reading below is measured for Natrona 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 Natrona County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Natrona 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
MeasuredNatrona County runs about 150 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
MeasuredNatrona 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 Natrona County is in
Natrona County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Wyoming Basin (64%), Northwestern Great Plains (29%) and Southern Rockies (7%). 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 Natrona County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Natrona County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 150-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 Natrona County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Natrona County
USGS estimates 5,409 lb of Glyphosate on Natrona County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Triclopyr (2,841 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (2,649 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 Natrona County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Natrona County — 897 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. 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 Natrona 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 Natrona County
Closest first, across Natrona County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASPER PUMP STATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Bucknum PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Waltman StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.6 mi
- HHA, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 11.6 mi
- Supply WagonUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.7 mi
- 37N 082W 36DDD01Nitrate · 12.5 mi
- DRAGON FAB-TECH, LLCBrownfields · 13.7 mi
- 34-081-23ddd04Nitrate · 14.1 mi
- Poison Spider SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 14.2 mi
- TETON INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 14.7 mi
- TM PROPERTYBrownfields · 15.0 mi
- UnocalUnderground Storage Tanks · 15.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Natrona 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 Natrona County.
Severity Distribution
across Natrona County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Natrona 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 Natrona County average
Your land is one point inside Natrona County
Everything above resolves to Natrona County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 3.4M 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 Natrona County Average
Natrona County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Natrona County
- ●One soil character for all of Natrona County
- ●Frost dates read at Natrona County's scale: May 6 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Natrona County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Natrona County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Natrona County, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Natrona County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Natrona County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Natrona County average
How we know this about Natrona 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 Natrona County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Natrona County
When does frost risk typically end in Natrona County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Natrona County typically lands around May 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 May 27.
How long is the growing season in Natrona County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Natrona County sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 19, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Natrona County?
The federal record around Natrona County is a meaningful one — 897 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (493), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Natrona County's scale — its 5a band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Natrona 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 Natrona County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Natrona County's own scale — its own ~150-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 897 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Natrona County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Natrona County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Natrona CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 897 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Natrona County's boundary and the 3,417,941 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Natrona County spans, Wyoming Basin the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Natrona 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 Natrona County — the ~150 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 Natrona County's 3,417,941 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 897 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 Natrona Countyread your own land →