Black Butte Ranch, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, pumpkin, blackberry, california poppy, and zucchini all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Black Butte Ranch, 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 Black Butte Ranch 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 Black Butte Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Black Butte Ranch — the short answer
Black Butte Ranch, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 57 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Aug 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~57
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Black Butte Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black Butte Ranch's 57-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black Butte Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Black Butte Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlack Butte Ranch runs about 57 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
MeasuredBlack Butte Ranch 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 Black Butte Ranch is in
Black Butte Ranch sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Black Butte Ranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Deschutes County.
What Grows in Black Butte Ranch
Every plant below cleared Black Butte Ranch's own zone 6a and its 57-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black Butte Ranch?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Aug 14 — 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 Black Butte Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black Butte Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14S/09E-16ADBNitrate · 0.5 mi
- BLACK BUTTE RANCH CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOODOO SKI BOWLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- OR STATE HWY 2-3 SANTIAM JCTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SUTTLE LAKE RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- SISTERS DISTRICT - PRAIRIE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- SISTERS - CAMP SHERMAN RFPDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- SISTERS DISTRICT - ALLINGHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- WIZARD FALLS FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- SISTERS DISTRICT - MONTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- SISTERS DISTRICT - SUTTLE LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- USDA USFS R06 SISTERS DISTRICT, COMPOUNDBrownfields · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black Butte Ranch'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 Black Butte Ranch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black Butte Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black Butte Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black Butte Ranch, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Black Butte Ranch. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Black Butte Ranch
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 Black Butte Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Black Butte Ranch
Everything above resolves to Black Butte Ranch 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 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 Black Butte Ranch Average
Black Butte Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Black Butte Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Black Butte Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Black Butte Ranch's scale: Jun 18 to Aug 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Butte Ranch's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black Butte Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black Butte Ranch, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Butte Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black Butte Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Butte Ranch average
How we know this about Black Butte Ranch
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 Black Butte Ranch’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 Black Butte Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Black Butte Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black Butte Ranch typically lands around Jun 18, 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 Jul 9.
When is the first frost in Black Butte Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black Butte Ranch typically arrives around Aug 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Jul 31, so the watching starts about Jul 15 — about 57 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black Butte Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black Butte Ranch sees about 57 frost-free days — roughly Jun 18 through Aug 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 9 to Jul 31, about 22 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black Butte Ranch?
The federal record around Black Butte Ranch is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Black Butte Ranch?
With about 57 frost-free days between hard freezes, Black Butte Ranch 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 85 to 113 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Black Butte Ranch's scale — its 6a band and its 57-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black Butte Ranch'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 Black Butte Ranch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Black Butte Ranch's own scale — its own ~57-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,245 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black Butte Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Black Butte Ranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 18 and Aug 14 and the ~57-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black Butte Ranch, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black Butte Ranch's boundary and the 5,245 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~57-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Black Butte Ranch's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Black Butte Ranch's 5,245 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Deschutes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Deschutes 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 Deschutes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Black Butte Ranch's 5,245 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black Butte Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,245 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Black Butte Ranch-wide figureread your own land →