Meadow Acres, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Meadow Acres, 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 Meadow Acres 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 Meadow Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Meadow Acres — the short answer
Meadow Acres, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 899 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 899 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 Meadow Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meadow Acres's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meadow Acres
Each reading below is measured for Meadow Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMeadow Acres runs about 156 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
MeasuredMeadow Acres 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 Meadow Acres is in
Meadow Acres sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Meadow Acres's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Natrona County is mostly Wyoming Basin. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Meadow Acres
Every plant below cleared Meadow Acres's own zone 5a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Meadow Acres?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Meadow Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meadow Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 33-077-05bdd01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 33-077-15bcb01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 34-077-35dac01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 33-076-06bcc01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WYOWIND ENERGY LLC DBA IBC CONSTRUCTION LLCBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- Halliburton Logging ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- BAKER HUGHES JOINT FACILITYBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- HALLIBURTON CASPER FIELD CAMPToxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- Halliburton ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- HALLIBURTON CDC MATERIAL TRUCKINGBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- MESA SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICESBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meadow Acres'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 Meadow Acres.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meadow Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meadow Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meadow Acres, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Meadow Acres. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Meadow Acres
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 Meadow Acres average
Your land is one point inside Meadow Acres
Everything above resolves to Meadow Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 899 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 Meadow Acres Average
Meadow Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Meadow Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Meadow Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Meadow Acres's scale: May 4 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meadow Acres's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meadow Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meadow Acres, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meadow Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meadow Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meadow Acres average
How we know this about Meadow Acres
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 Meadow Acres’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 Meadow Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Meadow Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meadow Acres typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Meadow Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meadow Acres typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meadow Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meadow Acres sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 23, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meadow Acres?
The federal record around Meadow Acres is a meaningful one — 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Meadow Acres?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meadow Acres's scale — its 5a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meadow Acres'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 Meadow Acres’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Meadow Acres's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 899 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meadow Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meadow Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 7 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meadow Acres, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meadow Acres's boundary and the 899 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Meadow Acres sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Meadow Acres's 899 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Natrona County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Natrona 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 Natrona County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meadow Acres's 899 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meadow Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 899 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Meadow Acres-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingMeadow Acres sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides