Fort Laramie, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Fort Laramie, 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 Fort Laramie 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 Fort Laramie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fort Laramie — the short answer
Fort Laramie, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 161 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 Fort Laramie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Laramie's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Laramie
Each reading below is measured for Fort Laramie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Laramie runs about 142 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
MeasuredFort Laramie 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 Fort Laramie is in
Fort Laramie sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Laramie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Goshen County.
What Grows in Fort Laramie
Every plant below cleared Fort Laramie's own zone 5a and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Laramie?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Sep 28 — 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 Fort Laramie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Laramie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fort Laramie National Historic SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Division #1Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Fort Laramie MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Goshen County School District #1 - Fort Laramie School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Fort LaramieUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 26-064-23cdb01Nitrate · 2500 ft
- 26-064-22bdd01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 26-064-22ddd01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Volkswagen Half Way HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 26-064-28bbb03Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 26-064-28bbb02Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 26-064-30aca01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Laramie'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 Fort Laramie.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Laramie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Laramie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Laramie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Laramie — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fort Laramie
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 Fort Laramie average
Your land is one point inside Fort Laramie
Everything above resolves to Fort Laramie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 Fort Laramie Average
Fort Laramie Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fort Laramie
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Laramie
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Laramie's scale: May 9 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Laramie's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Laramie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Laramie, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Laramie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Laramie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Laramie average
How we know this about Fort Laramie
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 Fort Laramie’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 Fort Laramie
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Laramie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Laramie 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 Fort Laramie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Laramie typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Laramie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Laramie sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 14, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Laramie?
The federal record around Fort Laramie is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Fort Laramie?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort Laramie 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 170 to 198 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 Fort Laramie's scale — its 5a band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Laramie'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 Fort Laramie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Laramie's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Laramie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Laramie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Sep 28 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Laramie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Laramie's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Laramie's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Laramie's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goshen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goshen 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 Goshen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Laramie's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Laramie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 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 Fort Laramie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Growing region
Nearby growing guides