Bellfountain, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bellfountain, 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 Bellfountain 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 Bellfountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bellfountain — the short answer
Bellfountain, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 862 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Benton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Benton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Benton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 862 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Benton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bellfountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellfountain's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellfountain
Each reading below is measured for Bellfountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBellfountain runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Benton County, the closest normal to Bellfountain) — 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
MeasuredBellfountain sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Bellfountain is in
Bellfountain sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Bellfountain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Bellfountain
Every plant below cleared Bellfountain's own zone 8b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellfountain?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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.
Documented around Bellfountain
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bellfountain checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 461 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bellfountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellfountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELLFOUNTAIN MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ALPINE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HULL LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HULL-OAKES LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CROCKER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- VOLKER, WILLIAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- EDWARD A. PARKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- NW NATURAL GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MONROE BRICK AND TILE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MONROE ATCBIUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- USWEST - MONROE RADIO - 010314Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BOB LEISUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellfountain'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 Bellfountain.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of Bellfountain
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellfountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellfountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellfountain, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Bellfountain. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bellfountain
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 Bellfountain average
Your land is one point inside Bellfountain
Everything above resolves to Bellfountain as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 862 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Benton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Bellfountain Average
Bellfountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bellfountain
- ●One soil character for all of Bellfountain
- ●Frost dates read at Bellfountain's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellfountain's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellfountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellfountain, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellfountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellfountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellfountain average
How we know this about Bellfountain
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 Benton County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Bellfountain
When does frost risk typically end in Bellfountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellfountain typically lands around Mar 8, 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 Mar 29.
When is the first frost in Bellfountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellfountain typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellfountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellfountain sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 5, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellfountain?
The federal record around Bellfountain is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Bellfountain?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bellfountain's scale — its 8b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellfountain'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 Bellfountain’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellfountain's own scale — the 862 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellfountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellfountain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellfountain's boundary and the 862 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellfountain's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bellfountain checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bellfountain has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Benton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellfountain's 862 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellfountain's 862 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellfountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 862 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bellfountain-wide figureread your own land →