Van Tassell, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Van Tassell, 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 Van Tassell 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 Van Tassell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Van Tassell — the short answer
Van Tassell, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Van Tassell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Van Tassell's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Van Tassell
Each reading below is measured for Van Tassell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVan Tassell runs about 147 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
MeasuredVan Tassell 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 Van Tassell is in
Van Tassell sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Van Tassell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Niobrara County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Van Tassell
Every plant below cleared Van Tassell's own zone 5a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Van Tassell?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — 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 Van Tassell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Van Tassell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rose LewisUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Van Tassell RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 31-060-16dba01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 31-060-05cb 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 32-060-31bda01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- DUCK CREEK RANCHCAFO · 3.5 mi
- 30-060-03bc 01Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 31-061-04ab 01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 32-061-27bdd01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 31-061-04cb 01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 32-061-33cd 01Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 30-061-27dda01Nitrate · 9.5 mi
Measured from Van Tassell'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 Van Tassell.
Total Sites
21
within ~10 miles of Van Tassell
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Van Tassell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Van Tassell
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Van Tassell
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 Van Tassell average
Your land is one point inside Van Tassell
Everything above resolves to Van Tassell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Van Tassell Average
Van Tassell Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Van Tassell
- ●One soil character for all of Van Tassell
- ●Frost dates read at Van Tassell's scale: May 9 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Van Tassell's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Van Tassell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Van Tassell, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Van Tassell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Van Tassell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Van Tassell average
How we know this about Van Tassell
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 Van Tassell’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 Van Tassell
When does frost risk typically end in Van Tassell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Van Tassell typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Van Tassell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Van Tassell typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Van Tassell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Van Tassell sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 19, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Van Tassell?
The federal record around Van Tassell is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Van Tassell?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Van Tassell 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 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Van Tassell's scale — its 5a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Van Tassell'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 Van Tassell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Van Tassell's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,169 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Van Tassell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Van Tassell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 3 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Van Tassell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Van Tassell's boundary and the 1,169 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Van Tassell sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Van Tassell's 1,169 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Niobrara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Niobrara 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 Niobrara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Van Tassell's 1,169 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Van Tassell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,169 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 Van Tassell-wide figureread your own land →
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