Donald, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, 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.
Even in Donald, 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 Donald 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 Donald — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Donald — the short answer
Donald, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 243 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 243 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 Marion County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Donald's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Donald's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Donald
Each reading below is measured for Donald itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDonald runs about 243 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Donald) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDonald 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 Donald is in
Donald sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Donald's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Donald
Every plant below cleared Donald's own zone 8b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Donald?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Donald
Survey cells within 31 miles of Donald checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 517 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Donald
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Donald. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DONALD, CITY OFPFAS · 500 ft
- WILCO FARMERS DONALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DONALD FEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GROSSEN, GARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JUDY'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HAENER BROTHERS FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FOSTER FARMS DONALDToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- M & L TRANSPORT SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NORTHWEST ORGANIC PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SPEEDCO NO 904Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- 19811 OLMSTEADBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #584Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Donald'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 Donald.
Total Sites
596
within ~10 miles of Donald
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Donald
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Donald
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Donald, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Donald — CAFO (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (51 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Donald
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 Donald average
Your land is one point inside Donald
Everything above resolves to Donald as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 243 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marion 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 Donald Average
Donald Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Donald
- ●One soil character for all of Donald
- ●Frost dates read at Donald's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Donald's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Donald
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Donald, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Donald averages can't show:
We read public map data around Donald — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Donald average
How we know this about Donald
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 Marion 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 Donald
When does frost risk typically end in Donald?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Donald typically lands around Mar 23, 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 Apr 13.
When is the first frost in Donald?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Donald 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 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Donald?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Donald sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 7, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Donald?
The federal record around Donald is a meaningful one — 596 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (319), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Donald?
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 Donald's scale — its 8b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Donald'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 Donald’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Donald's own scale — the 243 acres it covers and 596 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Donald's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 596 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Donald, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Donald's boundary and the 243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Donald's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Donald checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Donald has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marion County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Donald's 243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Donald's 243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Donald you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Donald-wide figureread your own land →