Medicine Bow, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Medicine Bow, 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 Medicine Bow 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 Medicine Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Medicine Bow — the short answer
Medicine Bow, Wyoming: USDA zone 4a, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- 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 4a is Medicine Bow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Medicine Bow's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Medicine Bow
Each reading below is measured for Medicine Bow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMedicine Bow runs about 133 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
MeasuredMedicine Bow sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Medicine Bow is in
Medicine Bow sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Medicine Bow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Medicine Bow
Every plant below cleared Medicine Bow's own zone 4a and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Medicine Bow?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — 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 Medicine Bow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Medicine Bow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Medicine Bow Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Town of Medicine BowUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 22-078-08bdb01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Cooper Motors CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Powell's ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Carbon County Road and BridgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Medicine Bow LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Amoco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- J B's Stop and ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WY Department of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 22-078-06abb01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 23-078-29adb01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Medicine Bow'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 Medicine Bow.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Medicine Bow
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
28 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Medicine Bow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Medicine Bow, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Medicine Bow. 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 Medicine Bow
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 Medicine Bow average
Your land is one point inside Medicine Bow
Everything above resolves to Medicine Bow 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 Medicine Bow Average
Medicine Bow Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Medicine Bow
- ●One soil character for all of Medicine Bow
- ●Frost dates read at Medicine Bow's scale: May 14 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Medicine Bow's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Medicine Bow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Medicine Bow, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Medicine Bow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Medicine Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Medicine Bow average
How we know this about Medicine Bow
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 Medicine Bow’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 Medicine Bow
When does frost risk typically end in Medicine Bow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Medicine Bow typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Medicine Bow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Medicine Bow typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Medicine Bow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Medicine Bow sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 10, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Medicine Bow?
The federal record around Medicine Bow is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Medicine Bow?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Medicine Bow 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Medicine Bow's scale — its 4a band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Medicine Bow'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 Medicine Bow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Medicine Bow's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,213 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Medicine Bow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Medicine Bow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 24 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Medicine Bow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Medicine Bow's boundary and the 2,213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Medicine Bow's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Medicine Bow's 2,213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon 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 Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Medicine Bow's 2,213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Medicine Bow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,213 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Medicine Bow-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingMedicine Bow sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides