Cascadia, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cascadia, 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 Cascadia 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 Cascadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cascadia — the short answer
Cascadia, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Cascadia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cascadia's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cascadia
Each reading below is measured for Cascadia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCascadia runs about 263 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
MeasuredCascadia 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 Cascadia is in
Cascadia sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cascadia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Linn County.
What Grows in Cascadia
Every plant below cleared Cascadia's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cascadia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Cascadia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cascadia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USFSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOTMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FOSTER DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- LARRY DURKEE FOSTER UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CASCADE LOGGING DIV - FOSTER TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- GREEN PETER DAM USACEBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- SUNNYSIDE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- MURPHY COMPANYBrownfields · 8.0 mi
- MURPHY COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 8.0 mi
- FOSTER DAM USACEBrownfields · 8.5 mi
- GREEN PETER-FOSTER DAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- OR STATE FORESTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cascadia'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 Cascadia.
Total Sites
19
within ~10 miles of Cascadia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cascadia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cascadia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Cascadia
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 Cascadia average
Your land is one point inside Cascadia
Everything above resolves to Cascadia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Cascadia Average
Cascadia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cascadia
- ●One soil character for all of Cascadia
- ●Frost dates read at Cascadia's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cascadia's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cascadia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cascadia, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cascadia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cascadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cascadia average
How we know this about Cascadia
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 Cascadia’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 Cascadia
When does frost risk typically end in Cascadia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cascadia typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Cascadia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cascadia typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cascadia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cascadia sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 7, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cascadia?
The federal record around Cascadia is a meaningful one — 19 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles 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 Cascadia?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cascadia's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cascadia'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 Cascadia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cascadia's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,212 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cascadia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cascadia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 21 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cascadia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cascadia's boundary and the 3,212 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cascadia's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cascadia's 3,212 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Linn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Linn 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 Linn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cascadia's 3,212 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cascadia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,212 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Cascadia-wide figureread your own land →