Gearhart, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include kale, douglas fir, garlic, and hazelnut — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gearhart, 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 Gearhart 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 Gearhart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gearhart — the short answer
Gearhart, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Clatsop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Clatsop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Clatsop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Clatsop County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gearhart's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gearhart's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gearhart
Each reading below is measured for Gearhart itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGearhart runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Clatsop County, the closest normal to Gearhart) — 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
MeasuredGearhart 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 Gearhart is in
Gearhart sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Gearhart's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clatsop County.
What Grows in Gearhart
Plants matched to Gearhart'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 Gearhart?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Gearhart
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gearhart. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH COAST DEVELOPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MIZAR DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BUD'S CAMPGROUND & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GEARHART, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BLISSETT,JON G.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PALMBERG PAVING CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RALPHS TOWING & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GEARHART QUICK STOP, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BAYVIEW TRANSIT MIX INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALKERS BODY CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BAYVIEW ASPHALTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ADMIN SCHOOL DIST #10 - BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gearhart'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 Gearhart.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gearhart
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gearhart
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gearhart, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gearhart — Superfund (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (70 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gearhart
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 Gearhart average
Your land is one point inside Gearhart
Everything above resolves to Gearhart as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clatsop 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 Gearhart Average
Gearhart Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gearhart
- ●One soil character for all of Gearhart
- ●Frost dates read at Gearhart's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gearhart's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gearhart
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gearhart, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gearhart averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gearhart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gearhart average
How we know this about Gearhart
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 Clatsop 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 Gearhart
When does frost risk typically end in Gearhart?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gearhart typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Gearhart?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gearhart typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gearhart?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gearhart sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 8, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gearhart?
The federal record around Gearhart is a meaningful one — 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Gearhart?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gearhart's scale — its 9a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gearhart'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 Gearhart’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Gearhart's own scale — the 1,196 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gearhart's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gearhart, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gearhart's boundary and the 1,196 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Gearhart's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gearhart has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clatsop County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gearhart's 1,196 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clatsop 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 Clatsop 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 Clatsop County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gearhart's 1,196 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gearhart you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,196 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Gearhart-wide figureread your own land →