Little America, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Little America, 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 Little America 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 Little America — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little America — the short answer
Little America, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~137
- 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 5a is Little America's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little America's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little America
Each reading below is measured for Little America itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle America runs about 137 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
MeasuredLittle America 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 Little America is in
Little America sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Little America's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sweetwater County.
What Grows in Little America
Every plant below cleared Little America's own zone 5a and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little America?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — 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 Little America
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little America. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 18-110-17bac01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Little America Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TESORO LOGISTICS NORTHWEST PIPELINE LLC-GRANGER STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- FMC Corporation Church Buttes Gas Line Drip GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Mountain Gas Resources - Granger Gas PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 18-110-28d 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- FMC Corporation River Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- AMERICAN SODA, LLC.Brownfields · 4.2 mi
- WE SODA ALKALI WESTVACOBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- 18-110-02 01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- MANDROS PAINTING INC.Brownfields · 4.9 mi
- Granger StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little America'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 Little America.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Little America
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little America
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little America
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little America, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Little America — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Nitrate (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Little America
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 Little America average
Your land is one point inside Little America
Everything above resolves to Little America 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 Little America Average
Little America Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Little America
- ●One soil character for all of Little America
- ●Frost dates read at Little America's scale: May 13 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little America's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little America
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little America, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little America averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little America — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little America average
How we know this about Little America
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 Little America’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 Little America
When does frost risk typically end in Little America?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little America typically lands around May 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Little America?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little America typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little America?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little America sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 13, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little America?
The federal record around Little America is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles 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 Little America?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Little America 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 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Little America's scale — its 5a band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little America'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 Little America’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little America's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,734 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little America's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little America's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Sep 27 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little America, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little America's boundary and the 1,734 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Little America's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little America's 1,734 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sweetwater County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little America's 1,734 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little America you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,734 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Little America-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingLittle America sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides