Gold Beach, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gold Beach, 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 Gold Beach 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 Gold Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gold Beach — the short answer
Gold Beach, Oregon: USDA zone 9b, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Curry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Curry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Curry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Curry County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Gold Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gold Beach's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gold Beach
Each reading below is measured for Gold Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGold Beach runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Curry County, the closest normal to Gold Beach) — 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
MeasuredGold Beach sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Gold Beach is in
Gold Beach sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Gold Beach's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Curry County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gold Beach
Every plant below cleared Gold Beach's own zone 9b and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gold Beach?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Gold Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gold Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOWARD'S EXCEL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- COOS-CURRY ELECTRIC CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- EV'S HI TECH AUTO & TOWINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- GOLD BEACH MUNICAFO · 550 ft
- PORT OF GOLD BEACH - AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GTE - GRIZZLY MT MW REMOTE (6600-B01)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FRANKO #19Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- D & J SHELL MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- US FOREST SVC NW REG ILLINOIS RVR BRIDGEBrownfields · 950 ft
- CURRY GENERAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GTE - GOLD BEACH GENERATOR (6040-B1B)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CURRY COUNTY SHERIFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gold Beach'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 Gold Beach.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gold Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gold Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gold Beach, Mining runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Gold Beach. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Gold Beach
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 Gold Beach average
Your land is one point inside Gold Beach
Everything above resolves to Gold Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Curry 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 Gold Beach Average
Gold Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Gold Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Gold Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Gold Beach's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gold Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gold Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gold Beach, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gold Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gold Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gold Beach average
How we know this about Gold Beach
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 Curry 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 Gold Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Gold Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gold Beach typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Gold Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gold Beach typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gold Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gold Beach sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 22, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gold Beach?
The federal record around Gold Beach shows 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gold Beach?
From about Nov 6 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 Dec 6 (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 Dec 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gold Beach's scale — its 9b band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gold Beach'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 Gold Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gold Beach's own scale — the 1,622 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gold Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gold Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gold Beach's boundary and the 1,622 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gold Beach 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 — Gold Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Curry County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gold Beach's 1,622 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Curry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Curry 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 Curry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gold Beach's 1,622 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gold Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,622 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 Gold Beach-wide figureread your own land →