Dilley, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dilley, 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 Dilley 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 Dilley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dilley — the short answer
Dilley, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 479 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 479 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 Washington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Dilley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dilley's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dilley
Each reading below is measured for Dilley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDilley runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Washington County, the closest normal to Dilley) — 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
MeasuredDilley 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 Dilley is in
Dilley sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Dilley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Dilley
Every plant below cleared Dilley's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dilley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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.
Documented around Dilley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dilley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 537 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dilley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dilley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01S/03W-07CAB01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MGC PURE CHEMICALS AMERICA INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- JOINT COMMISSION WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- FOREST GROVE LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LUMBERMENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GRIMMETT ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FOREST GROVE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FOREST GROVE DISPOSAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ORARNG FOREST GROVE FMSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- WOODFOLD MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- WOODFOLD MANUFACTURINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- FORMER HARDY'S CONTINENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dilley'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 Dilley.
Total Sites
475
within ~10 miles of Dilley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dilley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dilley
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Dilley
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 Dilley average
Your land is one point inside Dilley
Everything above resolves to Dilley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 479 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Washington 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 Dilley Average
Dilley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dilley
- ●One soil character for all of Dilley
- ●Frost dates read at Dilley's scale: Feb 22 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dilley's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dilley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dilley, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dilley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dilley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dilley average
How we know this about Dilley
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 Washington 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 Dilley
When does frost risk typically end in Dilley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dilley typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Dilley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dilley typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dilley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dilley sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 9, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dilley?
The federal record around Dilley is a meaningful one — 475 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (245), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Dilley?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dilley's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dilley'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 Dilley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dilley's own scale — the 479 acres it covers and 475 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dilley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 475 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dilley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dilley's boundary and the 479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dilley's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dilley checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dilley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Washington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dilley's 479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dilley's 479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dilley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 479 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Dilley-wide figureread your own land →