Dallas, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Dallas, 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 Dallas 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 Dallas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dallas — the short answer
Dallas, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Polk County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Dallas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dallas's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dallas
Each reading below is measured for Dallas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDallas runs about 278 days between hard freezes (read from Polk County, the closest normal to Dallas) — 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
MeasuredDallas 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 Dallas is in
Dallas sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Dallas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Dallas
Every plant below cleared Dallas's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dallas?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Dallas
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dallas checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 499 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dallas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dallas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAPITOL AUTO WEST VALLEYBrownfields · 650 ft
- MCMULLIN CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DALLAS, CITY OF - CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- POLK COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DALLAS FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PACIFIC POWER & LIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- POLK COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SALEM ARSRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VALLEY CONCRETE & GRAVEL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DALLAS CHEVRON #30Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WALLYS CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WEST VALLEY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dallas'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 Dallas.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Dallas
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dallas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dallas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dallas, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dallas — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (91 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dallas
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 Dallas average
Your land is one point inside Dallas
Everything above resolves to Dallas as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Polk County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Dallas Average
Dallas Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dallas
- ●One soil character for all of Dallas
- ●Frost dates read at Dallas's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dallas's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dallas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dallas, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dallas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dallas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dallas average
How we know this about Dallas
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 Polk County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Dallas
When does frost risk typically end in Dallas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dallas typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Dallas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dallas typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dallas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dallas sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 16, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dallas?
The federal record around Dallas is a meaningful one — 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Dallas?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dallas's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dallas'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 Dallas’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dallas's own scale — the 3,143 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dallas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dallas, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dallas's boundary and the 3,143 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dallas's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dallas checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dallas has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Polk County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dallas's 3,143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dallas's 3,143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dallas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,143 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Dallas-wide figureread your own land →