Foots Creek, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Foots Creek, 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 Foots Creek 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 Foots Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Foots Creek — the short answer
Foots Creek, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Foots Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Foots Creek's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Foots Creek
Each reading below is measured for Foots Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFoots Creek runs about 240 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredFoots Creek 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 Foots Creek is in
Foots Creek sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Foots Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Foots Creek
Every plant below cleared Foots Creek's own zone 8b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Foots Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Foots Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Foots Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Birdseye Creek MineMining · 1.0 mi
- Birdseye CreekMining · 1.0 mi
- FOOTS CREEK COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Big Buck ProspectMining · 1.2 mi
- 36S/04W-26CAC1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Swacker FlatMining · 1.4 mi
- Lyons GulchMining · 1.5 mi
- VALLEY OF THE ROGUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- STOHRS GAS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TinpanMining · 2.4 mi
- Tin Pan MineMining · 2.4 mi
- Woolf TungstenMining · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Foots Creek'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 Foots Creek.
Total Sites
260
within ~10 miles of Foots Creek
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Foots Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Foots Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Foots Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Foots Creek — Mining (84 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Foots Creek
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 Foots Creek average
Your land is one point inside Foots Creek
Everything above resolves to Foots Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. 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 Foots Creek Average
Foots Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Foots Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Foots Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Foots Creek's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Foots Creek's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Foots Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Foots Creek, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Foots Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Foots Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Foots Creek average
How we know this about Foots Creek
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 Foots Creek’s own record; 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 Foots Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Foots Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Foots Creek typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Foots Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Foots Creek typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Foots Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Foots Creek sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Foots Creek?
The federal record around Foots Creek runs heavier than most — 260 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (84), the nearest Mining record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Foots Creek?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Foots Creek's scale — its 8b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Foots Creek'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 Foots Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Foots Creek's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,884 acres it covers and 260 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Foots Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Foots Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 13 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 260 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Foots Creek, the closest Mining record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Foots Creek's boundary and the 3,884 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Foots Creek's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Foots Creek's 3,884 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Foots Creek's 3,884 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Foots Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,884 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.0 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 Foots Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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