Drain, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Drain, 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 Drain 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 Drain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Drain — the short answer
Drain, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 405 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Douglas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Douglas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Douglas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 405 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 Douglas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Drain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Drain's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Drain
Each reading below is measured for Drain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDrain runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Douglas County, the closest normal to Drain) — 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
MeasuredDrain 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 Drain is in
Drain sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Drain's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Douglas County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Drain
Every plant below cleared Drain's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Drain?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Drain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Drain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COWBOY'S SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- THE OLD PUMPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DRAIN CHEVRON & MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ROY'S TIRE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DUCO LAM INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2300 ft
- OR STATE HWY 3-6 DRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DOUGLAS COUNTY SHOP - DRAIN #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NORTH DOUGLAS WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TYREE OIL DRAIN PACIFIC PRIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NORTH DOUGLAS TRANSPORTATION, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WOOLLEY ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EMERALD FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Drain'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 Drain.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Drain
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Drain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Drain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Drain, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Drain — Mining (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Drain
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 Drain average
Your land is one point inside Drain
Everything above resolves to Drain as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 405 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Douglas 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 Drain Average
Drain Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Drain
- ●One soil character for all of Drain
- ●Frost dates read at Drain's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Drain's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Drain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Drain, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Drain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Drain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Drain average
How we know this about Drain
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 Douglas 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 Drain
When does frost risk typically end in Drain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Drain typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 16.
When is the first frost in Drain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Drain typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Drain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Drain sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 13, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Drain?
The federal record around Drain is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Drain?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Drain's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Drain'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 Drain’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Drain's own scale — the 405 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Drain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Drain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Drain's boundary and the 405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Drain sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Drain has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Douglas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Drain's 405 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Drain's 405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Drain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 405 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Drain-wide figureread your own land →
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