Oregon spans USDA hardiness zones 5a-10a, with a growing season of about 213 frost-free days — a season with slack in it: successions, late sowings, and long-maturing crops all fit.
The raw materials of the growing year here: 8-90 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 1,666 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 2,500 winter chill hours for tree fruit. Underfoot it's mostly volcanic, silt loam (Willamette), sandy loam, and pumice — and how those drain decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Zoom in and Oregon resolves into Pacific Northwest, Columbia Basin, and Willamette Valley — distinct growing regions with distinct frost calendars. These conditions suit hazelnut, blueberry, grape (pinot noir), and kale — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Oregon spans zones 5a-10a, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Oregon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Oregon — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Oregon: USDA zones 5a-10a, 86–308 frost-free days depending on the county, 36 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Oregon's own county record — Klamath County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Zone 5a-10a is Oregon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oregon's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Oregon averages 36 counties whose growing seasons are 222 days apart — from 86 frost-free days in Klamath County to 308 in Lincoln County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 36 counties runs 165–274 days, with a median of 212 days — a 222-day span end to end.
Measured across 36 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Oregon runs 165–274 frost-free days, and 17 of its 36 counties sit outside that — 8 on the short side, 9 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 165 frost-free days
8 counties
3 of 8 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
165–274 frost-free days
19 counties
0 of 19 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 274 frost-free days
9 counties
3 of 9 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Oregon — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Excellent and unusual: ash soils drain freely yet hold remarkable amounts of plant-available water in their porous structure — the best of both habits.
What thrives
Volcanic regions grow celebrated crops the world over: orchards, berries, vegetables, coffee, and wine grapes all prosper on ash-derived soils.
Drainage
Moderate. Silt holds water well and releases it steadily, though the fine particles can crust after hard rain and compact under traffic.
What thrives
The full vegetable garden does well here, and small grains, corn, and leafy greens are classic silt-loam crops. Its steady moisture suits shallow-rooted plants that dislike drought stress.
Drainage
Fast. The sand fraction opens the soil up, so water moves through the root zone quickly and the surface rarely stays soggy. The trade is that nutrients ride out with the water.
What thrives
Root crops love it — carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions size up cleanly in ground they can push through. Melons, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and most herbs appreciate the warmth and the drainage.
Drainage
Very fast between the particles, yet each porous pebble holds water inside itself — the reason pumice is prized as a potting-mix amendment.
What thrives
Conifers and hardy natives colonize pumice plains naturally; in cultivation it suits drought-tolerant perennials, and vegetables succeed in compost-enriched beds.
Drainage
Generally good; basalt soils range from stony and fast-draining on young flows to deeper clay loams on old ones.
What thrives
Wine grapes, orchard fruit, and vegetables all do famously well on basalt-derived soils — volcanic mineral wealth shows up in the harvest.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Oregon's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Across Oregon, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Apr 3, with the middle half of counties between Feb 25 and Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Oct 19 and Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
The plants Oregon put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Oregon grape
Berberis aquifolium
Designated 1899.
Pseudotsuga menziesii
Designated 1939. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Oregon — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Oregon’s zones 5a-10a, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Oregon’s USDA zones 5a-10a but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
West side: excessive rain and overcast skies reduce sun for warm-season crops
Map your sun honestly — a south-facing bed against a light wall recovers a surprising amount of the light the clouds take.
East side: arid conditions (8-15 inches rainfall) require irrigation
East of the Cascades, drip irrigation is infrastructure, not an accessory — plan it before the first planting.
Slug pressure is extreme in western Oregon
Evening patrols, iron-phosphate baits, and dry mulch edges knock slugs back — your extension guide covers the full toolkit.
Mountain areas have very short seasons (60-90 frost-free days)
At 60-90 frost-free days, season extension is the difference between a garden and a gamble — a high tunnel changes the math.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Oregon, the OSU Extension Service is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Oregon — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Oregon — 21,752 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 260 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Oregon carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Oregon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oregon, Mining runs higher than the national average — 3,562 sites across Oregon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Oregon as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 222 days apart, and hardiness across zones 5a-10a. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Oregon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oregon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oregon average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Oregon spans USDA hardiness zones 5a-10a — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about −20°F to 35°F depending where in Oregon you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Across Oregon, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Apr 3, with the middle half of counties between Feb 25 and Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Oct 19 and Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Across Oregon, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Feb 25 and Apr 26, with a county median near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 24.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Oregon's counties mostly run about 172 to 275 days, with a county median near 213 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Oregon's zones 5a-10a support a wide range — strong performers include Hazelnut, Blueberry, Grape (Pinot Noir), Kale, and Hop. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Oregon spans USDA zones 5a-10a (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Oregon runs heavier than most — 21,752 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10,643) — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Start with three facts. Oregon spans USDA zones 5a-10a, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Feb 25 to Apr 26 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 21,752 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Oregon's scale — its 5a-10a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oregon's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Oregon's own scale — the full zone 5a-10a span inside its borders, the 5 soil types that dominate its ground and 21,752 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Oregon.
Oregon shares its dominant growing region with these states — a useful comparison if you're weighing where a crop will behave the same way.
