What Grows in James Town, Wyoming

The last hard freeze (28°F) in James Town typically lands around May 10, 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 31.

The first hard freeze (28°F) in James Town 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 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, James Town sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 14, about 106 days.

The federal record around James Town is a meaningful one — 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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.

With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, James Town 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 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.