Baker City, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Baker City, 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 Baker City 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 Baker City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baker City — the short answer
Baker City, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 6a is Baker City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baker City's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baker City
Each reading below is measured for Baker City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaker City runs about 135 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
MeasuredBaker City sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Baker City is in
Baker City sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Baker City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baker County.
What Grows in Baker City
Every plant below cleared Baker City's own zone 6a and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baker City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Baker City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baker City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USWEST - BAKER CO - 010024Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- WILLIAMS CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BAKER FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DEAN, DALLAS MUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- JACKSONS FOOD STORES #0172Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- COOP SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CATE, DONALD EUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BAKER MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RENT A MOVIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BLACK DISTRIBUTING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TRANSPORTATION SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baker City'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 Baker City.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Baker City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baker City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baker City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baker City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Baker City — Mining (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (81 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Baker City
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 Baker City average
Your land is one point inside Baker City
Everything above resolves to Baker City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Baker City Average
Baker City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Baker City
- ●One soil character for all of Baker City
- ●Frost dates read at Baker City's scale: May 11 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baker City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baker City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baker City, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baker City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baker City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baker City average
How we know this about Baker City
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 Baker City’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 Baker City
When does frost risk typically end in Baker City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baker City typically lands around May 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Baker City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baker City typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baker City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baker City sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 9, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baker City?
The federal record around Baker City is a meaningful one — 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Baker City?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Baker City 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Baker City's scale — its 6a band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baker City'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 Baker City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baker City's own scale — its own ~135-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,617 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baker City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baker City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Sep 23 and the ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baker City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baker City's boundary and the 4,617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baker City's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baker City's 4,617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baker County
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Baker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baker City's 4,617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baker City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,617 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 Baker City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oregon
Growing region
Nearby growing guides