Riverside, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Riverside, 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 Riverside 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 Riverside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Riverside — the short answer
Riverside, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 129 days between hard freezes, across 173 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- 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
- ~129
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 173 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 Riverside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riverside's 129-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riverside
Each reading below is measured for Riverside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiverside runs about 129 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
MeasuredRiverside 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 Riverside is in
Riverside sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Riverside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Riverside
Every plant below cleared Riverside's own zone 5a and its 129-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Riverside?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (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. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Riverside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riverside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Trading Post, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- 14-083-06bbb04Nitrate · 950 ft
- 14-083-06bbb01Nitrate · 1000 ft
- Boston-Wyoming Smelter and Concentrating Mill (Facility)Mining · 1100 ft
- 14-083-06bbb02Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Riverside GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Sandstone Work CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Kermit PlattUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Big Creek RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Platt Ranches, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JNL VenturesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Karl's Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riverside'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 Riverside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riverside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riverside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Riverside, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Riverside — Mining (25 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Riverside
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 Riverside average
Your land is one point inside Riverside
Everything above resolves to Riverside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 173 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 Riverside Average
Riverside Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Riverside
- ●One soil character for all of Riverside
- ●Frost dates read at Riverside's scale: May 18 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riverside's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riverside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riverside, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riverside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riverside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riverside average
How we know this about Riverside
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 Riverside’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 Riverside
When does frost risk typically end in Riverside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riverside typically lands around May 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Riverside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riverside 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 129 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Riverside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riverside sees about 129 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 10, about 94 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Riverside?
The federal record around Riverside shows 68 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Riverside?
With about 129 frost-free days between hard freezes, Riverside 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 157 to 185 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Riverside's scale — its 5a band and its 129-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riverside'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 Riverside’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Riverside's own scale — its own ~129-day season between 28°F freezes, the 173 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riverside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riverside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 24 and the ~129-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riverside, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riverside's boundary and the 173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~129-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Riverside's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Riverside's 173 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 Riverside's 173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riverside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 173 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Riverside-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingRiverside sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides