Sherman County, in Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Sherman County lies within the Columbia Basin — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Sherman County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sherman County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Sherman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sherman County — the short answer
Sherman County, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 527K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 527K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 7a is Sherman County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sherman County's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sherman County
Across a year, Sherman County accumulates about 1,911 growing degree days above 50°F, about 59 more than the middle Oregon county — ahead of 19 of Oregon’s 36 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Sherman County
Across Sherman County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Condon, Walla Walla, and Lickskillet are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sherman County
The USDA soil survey maps 94% of Sherman County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat excessively drained, 1% poorly drained.
Condon is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Walla Walla (26%) and Lickskillet (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Sherman County
Each reading below is measured for Sherman County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Sherman County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Sherman County runs about pH 6.7–7.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredSherman County runs about 188 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
MeasuredSherman County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Sherman County is in
Sherman County sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Sherman County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sherman County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 188-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile.
Is it too late to plant in Sherman County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Sherman County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sherman County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 535 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly33 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sherman County
USGS estimates 153,087 lb of Glyphosate on Sherman County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (36,641 lb) and 2,4-d (16,372 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Sherman County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sherman County — 50 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Sherman County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Sherman County
Closest first, across Sherman County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EVERGREEN STATE HOLDINGSBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- ROADHOUSE 97Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- AT&T - GRASS VALLEY TD-2Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- 02.00S/16.00E-34AAA3Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- MORO MEDICAL CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- KURT'S KORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- WHITE FARM EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- ODOT MORO MAINTENANCE/MORO STOCKPILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- OLD BUS BARN SHERMAN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- AT&T - MORO TD-2 MOROORQ1770Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sherman County'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 Sherman County.
Severity Distribution
across Sherman County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sherman County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 41 sites across Sherman County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Sherman County
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 Sherman County average
Your land is one point inside Sherman County
Everything above resolves to Sherman County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 527K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Sherman County Average
Sherman County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sherman County
- ●One soil character for all of Sherman County
- ●Frost dates read at Sherman County's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sherman County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sherman County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sherman County, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sherman County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sherman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sherman County average
How we know this about Sherman County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Sherman County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sherman County
When does frost risk typically end in Sherman County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sherman County typically lands around Apr 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 May 9.
How long is the growing season in Sherman County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sherman County sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 9, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sherman County?
The federal record around Sherman County shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Brownfields record about 5.6 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Sherman County's scale — its 7a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sherman County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Oregon's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Sherman County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sherman County's own scale — its own ~188-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 50 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sherman County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sherman County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sherman CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 50 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 5.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sherman County's boundary and the 527,113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sherman County sitting wholly inside the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sherman County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sherman County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Sherman County — the ~188 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sherman County's 527,113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 50 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Sherman Countyread your own land →