Gervais, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Gervais, 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 Gervais 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 Gervais — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gervais — the short answer
Gervais, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 260 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
- 260 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 Gervais's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gervais's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gervais
Each reading below is measured for Gervais itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGervais runs about 243 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Gervais) — 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
MeasuredGervais 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 Gervais is in
Gervais sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Gervais's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Gervais
Every plant below cleared Gervais'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 Gervais?
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 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Gervais
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gervais checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 510 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gervais
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gervais. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF GERVAISUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GERVAIS HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FIBER-FAB INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FIBER FABToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- FIBER FABBrownfields · 2200 ft
- COME N GO MARKETBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- COME N GO MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WOODBURN BACKHOE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- EDER, ANDREWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- M & M AUTO WRECKING & TOWINGBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- GESCHWILL FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gervais'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 Gervais.
Total Sites
409
within ~10 miles of Gervais
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gervais
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gervais
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gervais, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gervais — CAFO (9 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Gervais
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 Gervais average
Your land is one point inside Gervais
Everything above resolves to Gervais as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 260 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 Gervais Average
Gervais Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Gervais
- ●One soil character for all of Gervais
- ●Frost dates read at Gervais's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gervais's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gervais
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gervais, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gervais averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gervais — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gervais average
How we know this about Gervais
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 Gervais
When does frost risk typically end in Gervais?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gervais 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 Gervais?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gervais 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 Gervais?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gervais 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 Gervais?
The federal record around Gervais is a meaningful one — 409 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (261), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gervais?
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 Gervais's scale — its 8b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gervais'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 Gervais’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gervais's own scale — the 260 acres it covers and 409 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gervais's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 409 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gervais, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gervais's boundary and the 260 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 Gervais's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gervais checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gervais 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 Gervais's 260 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 Gervais's 260 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gervais you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 260 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 Gervais-wide figureread your own land →