Lucerne, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lucerne, 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 Lucerne 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 Lucerne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lucerne — the short answer
Lucerne, Wyoming: USDA zone 4b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- 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 4b is Lucerne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lucerne's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lucerne
Each reading below is measured for Lucerne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLucerne runs about 162 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLucerne sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Lucerne is in
Lucerne sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Lucerne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hot Springs County.
What Grows in Lucerne
Every plant below cleared Lucerne's own zone 4b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lucerne?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Lucerne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lucerne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 43-094-07bcb01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 43-095-12dab01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 44-094-32ccc01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 43-094-05ddb01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 44-094-33ccb01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- WY Department of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Frank SkeenUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 44-094-20ccc01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 44-094-28bbd01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Hot Springs County Road and BridgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Weed and Pest Control DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- 43-095-36acd01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lucerne'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 Lucerne.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Lucerne
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lucerne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lucerne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lucerne, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Lucerne. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Lucerne
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 Lucerne average
Your land is one point inside Lucerne
Everything above resolves to Lucerne 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 Lucerne Average
Lucerne Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lucerne
- ●One soil character for all of Lucerne
- ●Frost dates read at Lucerne's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lucerne's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lucerne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lucerne, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lucerne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lucerne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lucerne average
How we know this about Lucerne
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 Lucerne’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 Lucerne
When does frost risk typically end in Lucerne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lucerne typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Lucerne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lucerne typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lucerne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lucerne sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 24, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lucerne?
The federal record around Lucerne is a meaningful one — 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 I protect my plants from frost in Lucerne?
From about Sep 8 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lucerne's scale — its 4b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lucerne'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 Lucerne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lucerne's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,843 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lucerne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lucerne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 8 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lucerne, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lucerne's boundary and the 12,843 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lucerne's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lucerne's 12,843 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hot Springs County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hot Springs 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 Hot Springs County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lucerne's 12,843 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lucerne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,843 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Lucerne-wide figureread your own land →
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