Deer Island, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Deer Island, 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 Deer Island 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 Deer Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Deer Island — the short answer
Deer Island, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 312 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Columbia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Columbia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- Columbia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 312 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 Columbia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Deer Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Island's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Island
Each reading below is measured for Deer Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDeer Island runs about 262 days between hard freezes (read from Columbia County, the closest normal to Deer Island) — 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
MeasuredDeer Island 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 Deer Island is in
Deer Island sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Deer Island's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Columbia County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Deer Island
Every plant below cleared Deer Island's own zone 8b and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Island?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Deer Island
Survey cells within 31 miles of Deer Island checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 566 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deer Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEER ISLAND STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COLUMBIA RIVER NITROGEN, LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- COLUMBIA RIVER NITROGEN, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- CPEX PACIFIC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CLEARWATER PAPER CORPORATIONBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- MP 230 HDDBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- ODOF COLUMBIA UNITBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- COLUMBIA UNIT HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CANAAN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- COWLITZ COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT 5Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- RIVER TOWNE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- HICKEY JR, PHILIP LUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Island'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 Deer Island.
Total Sites
228
within ~10 miles of Deer Island
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deer Island — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Deer Island
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 Deer Island average
Your land is one point inside Deer Island
Everything above resolves to Deer Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 312 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Columbia County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Deer Island Average
Deer Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Deer Island
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Island
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Island's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Island's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Island, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Island average
How we know this about Deer Island
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 Columbia 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 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 Deer Island
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Island typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Deer Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Island typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Island sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 12, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Island?
The federal record around Deer Island is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Deer Island?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Island's scale — its 8b band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Island'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 Deer Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deer Island's own scale — the 312 acres it covers and 228 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 228 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Island's boundary and the 312 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Deer Island sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Deer Island checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Deer Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Columbia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Island's 312 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Island's 312 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 312 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Deer Island-wide figureread your own land →
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