Canyon City, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Canyon 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 Canyon 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 Canyon City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Canyon City — the short answer
Canyon City, Oregon: USDA zone 6b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 901 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 901 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 6b is Canyon City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Canyon City's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Canyon City
Each reading below is measured for Canyon City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCanyon City runs about 168 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCanyon City sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Canyon City is in
Canyon City sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Canyon City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Canyon City
Every plant below cleared Canyon City's own zone 6b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Canyon City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Canyon City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Canyon City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CANYON CITY BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CANYON CITY SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CANYON CITY PACIFIC PRIDE CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ODOT CANYON CITY MAINT FACBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Canyon City Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GRANT COUNTY ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GRANT UNION HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- USDA FS - SUNSHINE GUARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GRANT COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 3 BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JOHN DAY VAPOR RESPONSESuperfund · 1.3 mi
- WESTERN STATES EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Canyon 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 Canyon City.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Canyon City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Canyon City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Canyon City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Canyon City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 108 sites within ~10 miles of Canyon City. 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.
Check your specific parcel in Canyon 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 Canyon City average
Your land is one point inside Canyon City
Everything above resolves to Canyon City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 901 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 Canyon City Average
Canyon City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Canyon City
- ●One soil character for all of Canyon City
- ●Frost dates read at Canyon City's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Canyon City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Canyon City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Canyon City, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Canyon City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Canyon City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Canyon City average
How we know this about Canyon City
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 Canyon 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 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 Canyon City
When does frost risk typically end in Canyon City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Canyon City typically lands around Apr 30, 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 May 21.
When is the first frost in Canyon City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Canyon City typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Canyon City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Canyon City sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 1, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Canyon City?
The federal record around Canyon City is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (108), 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 Canyon City?
From about Sep 15 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 Oct 15 (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 Oct 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Canyon City's scale — its 6b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Canyon 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 Canyon City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Canyon City's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 901 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Canyon City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Canyon City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 15 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Canyon City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Canyon City's boundary and the 901 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Canyon City's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Canyon City's 901 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Canyon City's 901 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Canyon 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 901 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 Canyon City-wide figureread your own land →