Ranchettes, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ranchettes, 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 Ranchettes 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 Ranchettes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ranchettes — the short answer
Ranchettes, Wyoming: USDA zone 5b, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 31K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 31K 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 5b is Ranchettes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ranchettes's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ranchettes
Each reading below is measured for Ranchettes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRanchettes runs about 158 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
MeasuredRanchettes sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Ranchettes is in
Ranchettes sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ranchettes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Laramie County.
What Grows in Ranchettes
Every plant below cleared Ranchettes's own zone 5b and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ranchettes?
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 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 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Ranchettes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ranchettes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cheyenne VortacUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 15-066-33abb01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 14-066-08acb01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 15-066-31bba01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- SummitUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Kingham EstatesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Site 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- School Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- College Drive TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 15-066-16dbb02Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- FORMER FE WARREN AFB ATLAS D MIS SITE 4Brownfields · 3.4 mi
- 15-066-16dbb01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ranchettes'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 Ranchettes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ranchettes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ranchettes
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ranchettes
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 Ranchettes average
Your land is one point inside Ranchettes
Everything above resolves to Ranchettes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 31K 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 Ranchettes Average
Ranchettes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ranchettes
- ●One soil character for all of Ranchettes
- ●Frost dates read at Ranchettes's scale: May 4 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ranchettes's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ranchettes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ranchettes, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ranchettes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ranchettes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ranchettes average
How we know this about Ranchettes
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 Ranchettes’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 Ranchettes
When does frost risk typically end in Ranchettes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ranchettes 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 Ranchettes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ranchettes typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ranchettes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ranchettes sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 25, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ranchettes?
The federal record around Ranchettes is a meaningful one — 522 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (288), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 I protect my plants from frost in Ranchettes?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ranchettes's scale — its 5b band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ranchettes'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 Ranchettes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ranchettes's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 31,206 acres it covers and 522 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ranchettes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ranchettes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 9 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 522 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ranchettes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ranchettes's boundary and the 31,206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ranchettes's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ranchettes's 31,206 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Laramie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Laramie 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 Laramie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ranchettes's 31,206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ranchettes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 31,206 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ranchettes-wide figureread your own land →
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