Star Valley Ranch, 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.
These conditions suit okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Star Valley 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 Star Valley 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 Star Valley Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Star Valley Ranch — the short answer
Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 112 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~112
- 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 5a is Star Valley Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Star Valley Ranch's 112-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Star Valley Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Star Valley Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStar Valley Ranch runs about 112 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
MeasuredStar Valley Ranch 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 Star Valley Ranch is in
Star Valley Ranch sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Star Valley Ranch's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lincoln County is mostly Wyoming Basin. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Star Valley Ranch
Every plant below cleared Star Valley Ranch's own zone 5a and its 112-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Star Valley Ranch?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 21 — 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 Star Valley Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Star Valley Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Flyin' B C RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Aspen Hills TankUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Cedar Creek TankUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 34-119-02bbc02Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Star Valley Cheese Co-opUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Dave PaoliUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Rick HebdonUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 34-119-11cac01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Lincoln County - Road and Bridge Afton ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Lincoln County - Road and Bridge Thayne ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 35-119-14cbc01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Star Valley 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 Star Valley Ranch.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Star Valley Ranch
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Star Valley Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Star Valley Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Star Valley Ranch, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Star Valley Ranch. 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 Star Valley 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 Star Valley Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Star Valley Ranch
Everything above resolves to Star Valley Ranch 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 Star Valley Ranch Average
Star Valley Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Star Valley Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Star Valley Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Star Valley Ranch's scale: Jun 1 to Sep 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Star Valley Ranch's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Star Valley Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Star Valley Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Star Valley Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Star Valley Ranch average
How we know this about Star Valley 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 Star Valley 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 Star Valley Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Star Valley Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Star Valley Ranch typically lands around Jun 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Star Valley Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Star Valley Ranch typically arrives around Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 7, so the watching starts about Aug 22 — about 112 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Star Valley Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Star Valley Ranch sees about 112 frost-free days — roughly Jun 1 through Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 22 to Sep 7, about 77 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Star Valley Ranch?
The federal record around Star Valley Ranch shows 71 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Star Valley Ranch?
With about 112 frost-free days between hard freezes, Star Valley 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 140 to 168 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 1 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Star Valley Ranch's scale — its 5a band and its 112-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Star Valley 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 Star Valley Ranch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Star Valley Ranch's own scale — its own ~112-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,729 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Star Valley Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Star Valley Ranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 1 and Sep 21 and the ~112-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Star Valley Ranch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Star Valley Ranch's boundary and the 1,729 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~112-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Star Valley Ranch sits in the Middle Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Star Valley Ranch's 1,729 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Star Valley Ranch's 1,729 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Star Valley 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 1,729 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Star Valley Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
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