Etna, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Etna, 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 Etna 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 Etna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Etna — the short answer
Etna, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 121 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~121
- 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 Etna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Etna's 121-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Etna
Each reading below is measured for Etna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEtna runs about 121 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
MeasuredEtna 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 Etna is in
Etna sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Etna's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lincoln County is mostly Wyoming Basin. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Etna
Every plant below cleared Etna's own zone 5a and its 121-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Etna?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Etna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Etna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Etna Trading CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CitiFinancial Mortgage PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 35-119-11ccb01Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 35-119-10dda01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 35-119-14cbc01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- B & B GRAVELBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 36-119-34cbd01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 36-119-27acc01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 36-119-26bcc01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 36-119-26bcb01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 35-119-33aab01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 35-119-33aba01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Etna'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 Etna.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Etna
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Etna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Etna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Etna, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Etna. 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 Etna
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 Etna average
Your land is one point inside Etna
Everything above resolves to Etna 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 Etna Average
Etna Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Etna
- ●One soil character for all of Etna
- ●Frost dates read at Etna's scale: May 22 to Sep 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Etna's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Etna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Etna, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Etna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Etna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Etna average
How we know this about Etna
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 Etna’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 Etna
When does frost risk typically end in Etna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Etna typically lands around May 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Etna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Etna typically arrives around Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 6, so the watching starts about Aug 21 — about 121 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Etna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Etna sees about 121 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 6, about 86 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Etna?
The federal record around Etna shows 80 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), 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 Etna?
With about 121 frost-free days between hard freezes, Etna 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 149 to 177 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Etna's scale — its 5a band and its 121-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Etna'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 Etna’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Etna's own scale — its own ~121-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,261 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Etna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Etna's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Sep 20 and the ~121-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Etna, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Etna's boundary and the 1,261 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~121-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Etna sits in the Middle 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 Etna's 1,261 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Etna's 1,261 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Etna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,261 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 Etna-wide figureread your own land →
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