Washington, District of Columbia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Washington, 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 Washington 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 Washington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Washington — the short answer
Washington, District of Columbia: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 39K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 39K 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 8a is Washington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Washington's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Washington
Each reading below is measured for Washington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWashington runs about 254 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWashington sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Washington is in
Washington sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Washington's own centroid rather than borrowed from District of Columbia.
What Grows in Washington
Every plant below cleared Washington's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's District of Columbia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Washington?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Washington
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Washington, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Washington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Washington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MURRAY EMERGENCY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE #2737Brownfields · 450 ft
- YALE STEAM LAUDRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- AMERICAN NEWS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PENN OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- EXXON S/S #2-2906Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WALKER-JONES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MT VERNON DEVELOPMENT GPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DRY CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- L5K LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ANA INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Washington'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 Washington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Washington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Washington
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 Washington
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 Washington average
Your land is one point inside Washington
Everything above resolves to Washington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 39K 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 city 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 Washington Average
Washington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Washington
- ●One soil character for all of Washington
- ●Frost dates read at Washington's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Washington's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Washington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Washington, District of Columbia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Washington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Washington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Washington average
How we know this about Washington
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Washington’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Washington
When does frost risk typically end in Washington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Washington typically lands around Mar 15, 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 Apr 5.
When is the first frost in Washington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Washington typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Washington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Washington sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 10, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Washington?
The federal record around Washington is a meaningful one — 6,017 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,283), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Washington?
From about Oct 25 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 Nov 24 (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 Nov 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Washington's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Washington'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 Washington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Washington's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 39,121 acres it covers and 6,017 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Washington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Washington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 24 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,017 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Washington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Washington's boundary and the 39,121 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Washington's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Washingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Washington's 39,121 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom District of Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom District of Columbia County
- The growing challenges every District of Columbia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom District of Columbia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom District of Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Washington's 39,121 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Washington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 39,121 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Washington-wide figureread your own land →
More in District of Columbia
Wider growing context
What grows across District of ColumbiaWashington sits outside our named growing regions, so District of Columbia as a whole is its closest context here.