Elkton, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: kale, douglas fir, garlic, and hazelnut. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Elkton, 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 Elkton 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 Elkton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elkton — the short answer
Elkton, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 148 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- 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
- 148 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 9a is Elkton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkton's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkton
Each reading below is measured for Elkton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElkton runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Douglas County, the closest normal to Elkton) — 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
MeasuredElkton sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Elkton is in
Elkton sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Elkton'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 Elkton
Plants matched to Elkton's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Elkton?
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 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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Elkton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- XRAM, LLC dba Elkton StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CASCADE UTILITIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 22S/07W-29BBD1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- D.L. PHIPPS OREGON STATE FOREST NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ROCKING C RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- U.S. BLM/ROAD MAINTENANCE-SAWYER CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
Measured from Elkton'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 Elkton.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkton
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Elkton
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 Elkton average
Your land is one point inside Elkton
Everything above resolves to Elkton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 148 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 Elkton Average
Elkton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Elkton
- ●One soil character for all of Elkton
- ●Frost dates read at Elkton's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkton's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkton, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkton average
How we know this about Elkton
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 Elkton
When does frost risk typically end in Elkton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkton 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 Elkton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkton 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 Elkton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkton 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 Elkton?
The federal record around Elkton is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), 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 Elkton?
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 Elkton's scale — its 9a band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkton'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 Elkton’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Elkton's own scale — the 148 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkton's boundary and the 148 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Elkton sits in the Coast Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elkton 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 Elkton's 148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- The candidate plant list — Oregon's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Oregon
- 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 Elkton's 148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 148 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 Elkton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oregon
Growing region