Rafter J Ranch, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rafter J Ranch, 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 Rafter J Ranch 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 Rafter J Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rafter J Ranch — the short answer
Rafter J Ranch, Wyoming: USDA zone 4b, about 111 days between hard freezes, across 422 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~111
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 422 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 Rafter J Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rafter J Ranch's 111-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Rafter J Ranch's own 30-year record measures about 111 days between 28°F killing freezes — 32 days longer than Teton County's ~79. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Rafter J Ranch's ~111-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rafter J Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Rafter J Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRafter J Ranch runs about 111 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
MeasuredRafter J Ranch 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 Rafter J Ranch is in
Rafter J Ranch sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rafter J Ranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Teton County.
What Grows in Rafter J Ranch
Every plant below cleared Rafter J Ranch's own zone 4b and its 111-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rafter J Ranch?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 16 — 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 Rafter J Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rafter J Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 40-116-17dbc01Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 40-116-17cdd01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS JACKSONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS JACKSONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Origin, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Browns Towing, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Liquor Down South (Former Pub Place C-Store)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 40-116-20aaa01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Arrow Contractors Shop YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Jardine MufflerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 40-116-19cbb01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Jim LarueUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rafter J Ranch'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 Rafter J Ranch.
Total Sites
225
within ~10 miles of Rafter J Ranch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rafter J Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rafter J Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rafter J Ranch, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Rafter J Ranch. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Rafter J Ranch
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 Rafter J Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Rafter J Ranch
Everything above resolves to Rafter J Ranch as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Rafter J Ranch Average
Rafter J Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Rafter J Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Rafter J Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Rafter J Ranch's scale: May 28 to Sep 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rafter J Ranch's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rafter J Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rafter J Ranch, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rafter J Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rafter J Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rafter J Ranch average
How we know this about Rafter J Ranch
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 Rafter J Ranch’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 Rafter J Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Rafter J Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rafter J Ranch typically lands around May 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Rafter J Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rafter J Ranch typically arrives around Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 2, so the watching starts about Aug 17 — about 111 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rafter J Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rafter J Ranch sees about 111 frost-free days — roughly May 28 through Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 18 to Sep 2, about 76 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rafter J Ranch?
The federal record around Rafter J Ranch is a meaningful one — 225 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 gardeners stretch the season in Rafter J Ranch?
With about 111 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rafter J Ranch 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 139 to 167 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 28 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rafter J Ranch's scale — its 4b band and its 111-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rafter J Ranch'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 Rafter J Ranch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rafter J Ranch's own scale — its own ~111-day season between 28°F freezes, the 422 acres it covers and 225 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rafter J Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rafter J Ranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 28 and Sep 16 and the ~111-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 225 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rafter J Ranch, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rafter J Ranch's boundary and the 422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~111-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rafter J Ranch's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rafter J Ranch's 422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Teton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Teton 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 Teton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rafter J Ranch's 422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rafter J Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Rafter J Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingRafter J Ranch sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides