Cascade Locks, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cascade Locks, 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 Cascade Locks 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 Cascade Locks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cascade Locks — the short answer
Cascade Locks, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 8b is Cascade Locks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cascade Locks's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cascade Locks
Each reading below is measured for Cascade Locks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCascade Locks runs about 279 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCascade Locks 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 Cascade Locks is in
Cascade Locks sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cascade Locks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hood River County.
What Grows in Cascade Locks
Every plant below cleared Cascade Locks's own zone 8b and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cascade Locks?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Cascade Locks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cascade Locks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 548 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cascade Locks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cascade Locks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE FISHERY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CASCADE LOCKS LUMBER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CASCADE WOOD COMPONENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BEAR MOUNTAIN FOREST PRODUCTS, INC.Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- OXBOW STATE FISH HATCHERYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- OR STATE HWY 1 - 2C CASCADE LOCKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WANAPA 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CASCADE LOCKS, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GORGE LUMBER-CASCADE LOCKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PORT OF CASCADE LOCKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MOLDED FIBER GLASS NORTHWEST SITEToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- UNITED TELEPHONE CO STEVENSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cascade Locks'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 Cascade Locks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cascade Locks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cascade Locks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cascade Locks, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cascade Locks — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cascade Locks
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 Cascade Locks average
Your land is one point inside Cascade Locks
Everything above resolves to Cascade Locks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Cascade Locks Average
Cascade Locks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cascade Locks
- ●One soil character for all of Cascade Locks
- ●Frost dates read at Cascade Locks's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cascade Locks's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cascade Locks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cascade Locks, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cascade Locks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cascade Locks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cascade Locks average
How we know this about Cascade Locks
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 Cascade Locks’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 Cascade Locks
When does frost risk typically end in Cascade Locks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cascade Locks typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Cascade Locks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cascade Locks typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cascade Locks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cascade Locks sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cascade Locks?
The federal record around Cascade Locks is a meaningful one — 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), 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 Cascade Locks?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cascade Locks's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cascade Locks'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 Cascade Locks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cascade Locks's own scale — its own ~279-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,334 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cascade Locks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cascade Locks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 23 and Nov 29 and the ~279-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cascade Locks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cascade Locks's boundary and the 1,334 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cascade Locks's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cascade Locks checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cascade Locks's 1,334 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hood River County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hood River 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 Hood River County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cascade Locks's 1,334 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cascade Locks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,334 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 Cascade Locks-wide figureread your own land →