Fort Washakie, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Washakie, 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 Washakie 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 Washakie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Washakie — the short answer
Fort Washakie, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 13K 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)
- 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
- 13K 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 Washakie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Washakie's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Washakie
Each reading below is measured for Fort Washakie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Washakie 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
MeasuredFort Washakie 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 Washakie is in
Fort Washakie sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort Washakie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fremont County.
What Grows in Fort Washakie
Every plant below cleared Fort Washakie's own zone 5a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Washakie?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. 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 Fort Washakie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Washakie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 1S-01W-08ccb01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- FORT WASHAKIE CHEMICALSSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- FT. WASHAKIE HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- BIA ROADS GARAGEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 1S-01W-04adc01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 1S-01W-03ccb01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 1S-01W-10cbd01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- Fremont County School District #21/Ft. Washakie ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- FORT WASHAKIE SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- 1N-01E-33bbb01Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- Wyoming Indian Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- 1S-01E-31dda01Nitrate · 8.3 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Washakie'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 Washakie.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Fort Washakie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Washakie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Washakie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Washakie, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Washakie. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Fort Washakie
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 Washakie average
Your land is one point inside Fort Washakie
Everything above resolves to Fort Washakie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 Washakie Average
Fort Washakie Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fort Washakie
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Washakie
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Washakie's scale: May 9 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Washakie's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Washakie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Washakie, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Washakie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Washakie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Washakie average
How we know this about Fort Washakie
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 Washakie’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 Washakie
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Washakie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Washakie 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 Washakie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Washakie 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 Fort Washakie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Washakie 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 Fort Washakie?
The federal record around Fort Washakie is a meaningful one — 28 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Fort Washakie?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort Washakie 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 Fort Washakie's scale — its 5a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Washakie'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 Washakie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Washakie's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,369 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Washakie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Washakie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 3 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Washakie, the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Washakie's boundary and the 13,369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Washakie's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Washakie's 13,369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fremont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fremont 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 Fremont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Washakie's 13,369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Washakie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Fort Washakie-wide figureread your own land →
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