Esterbrook, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Esterbrook, 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 Esterbrook 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 Esterbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Esterbrook — the short answer
Esterbrook, Wyoming: USDA zone 5b, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Esterbrook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Esterbrook's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Esterbrook
Each reading below is measured for Esterbrook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEsterbrook runs about 147 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
MeasuredEsterbrook 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 Esterbrook is in
Esterbrook sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Esterbrook's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Converse County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Esterbrook
Every plant below cleared Esterbrook's own zone 5b and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Esterbrook?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (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. 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 Esterbrook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Esterbrook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Eureka ProspectMining · 0.6 mi
- 28-071-08ccb01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Eureka Prospect-Esterbrook AreaMining · 1.0 mi
- Three Cripples MineMining · 1.0 mi
- Esterbrook MineMining · 1.1 mi
- 28-071-09aca01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Big Five ProspectMining · 1.3 mi
- UlcanomoMining · 1.3 mi
- Strong MineMining · 1.3 mi
- Mc Ghee ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- Mcgee ClaimMining · 1.8 mi
- Maggie Murphy Group ProspectMining · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Esterbrook'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 Esterbrook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Esterbrook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Esterbrook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Esterbrook, Mining runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Esterbrook. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Esterbrook
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 Esterbrook average
Your land is one point inside Esterbrook
Everything above resolves to Esterbrook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Esterbrook Average
Esterbrook Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Esterbrook
- ●One soil character for all of Esterbrook
- ●Frost dates read at Esterbrook's scale: May 9 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Esterbrook's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Esterbrook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Esterbrook, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Esterbrook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Esterbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Esterbrook average
How we know this about Esterbrook
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 Esterbrook’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 Esterbrook
When does frost risk typically end in Esterbrook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Esterbrook typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Esterbrook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Esterbrook typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Esterbrook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Esterbrook sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 19, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Esterbrook?
The federal record around Esterbrook shows 39 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (18), the nearest Mining record about 0.6 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 Esterbrook?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Esterbrook 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 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Esterbrook's scale — its 5b band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Esterbrook'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 Esterbrook’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Esterbrook's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,156 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Esterbrook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Esterbrook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 3 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Esterbrook, the closest Mining record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Esterbrook's boundary and the 2,156 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Esterbrook sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Esterbrook's 2,156 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Converse County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Converse 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 Converse County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Esterbrook's 2,156 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Esterbrook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,156 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.6 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 Esterbrook-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingEsterbrook sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides