Encampment, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Encampment, 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 Encampment 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 Encampment — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Encampment — the short answer
Encampment, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 129 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~129
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Encampment's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Encampment's 129-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Encampment
Each reading below is measured for Encampment itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEncampment runs about 129 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
MeasuredEncampment 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 Encampment is in
Encampment sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Encampment's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Encampment
Every plant below cleared Encampment's own zone 5a and its 129-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Encampment?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Encampment
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Encampment. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JNL VenturesUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Karl's Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- KARL'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 500 ft
- Sandstone Work CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Kermit PlattUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Platt Ranches, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Big Creek RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Encampment District officeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Boston-Wyoming Smelter and Concentrating Mill (Facility)Mining · 0.8 mi
- Trading Post, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 14-083-06bbb01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 14-083-06bbb04Nitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Encampment'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 Encampment.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Encampment
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Encampment
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Encampment, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Encampment — Mining (26 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Encampment
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 Encampment average
Your land is one point inside Encampment
Everything above resolves to Encampment as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Encampment Average
Encampment Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Encampment
- ●One soil character for all of Encampment
- ●Frost dates read at Encampment's scale: May 18 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Encampment's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Encampment
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Encampment, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Encampment averages can't show:
We read public map data around Encampment — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Encampment average
How we know this about Encampment
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 Encampment’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 Encampment
When does frost risk typically end in Encampment?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Encampment typically lands around May 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Encampment?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Encampment typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 129 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Encampment?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Encampment sees about 129 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 10, about 94 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Encampment?
The federal record around Encampment shows 69 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Encampment?
With about 129 frost-free days between hard freezes, Encampment 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 157 to 185 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Encampment's scale — its 5a band and its 129-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Encampment'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 Encampment’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Encampment's own scale — its own ~129-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,022 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Encampment's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Encampment's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 24 and the ~129-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Encampment, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Encampment's boundary and the 1,022 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~129-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Encampment's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Encampment's 1,022 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon 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 Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Encampment's 1,022 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Encampment you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,022 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Encampment-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingEncampment sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.