Granite, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Granite, 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 Granite 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 Granite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Granite — the short answer
Granite, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 130 days between hard freezes, across 238 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~130
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 238 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 6a is Granite's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Granite's 130-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Granite
Each reading below is measured for Granite itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGranite runs about 130 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGranite sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Granite is in
Granite sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Granite's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Granite
Every plant below cleared Granite's own zone 6a and its 130-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Granite?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Granite
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Granite. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRANITE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- New York MineMining · 1.6 mi
- Meadow and DuckworthMining · 1.7 mi
- Independance/Cougar-Independance GpMining · 1.7 mi
- Independence MineMining · 2.1 mi
- COUGAR MINESuperfund · 2.2 mi
- Red Mountain MineMining · 2.4 mi
- New YorkMining · 2.4 mi
- Lost BuckMining · 2.5 mi
- Meadows and DuckworthMining · 2.6 mi
- CougarMining · 2.6 mi
- Blue BirdMining · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Granite'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 Granite.
Total Sites
170
within ~10 miles of Granite
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Granite
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Granite, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Granite — Mining (157 sites) and Superfund (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Granite
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 Granite average
Your land is one point inside Granite
Everything above resolves to Granite as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 238 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 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 Granite Average
Granite Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Granite
- ●One soil character for all of Granite
- ●Frost dates read at Granite's scale: May 24 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Granite's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Granite
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Granite, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Granite averages can't show:
We read public map data around Granite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Granite average
How we know this about Granite
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 Granite’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 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 Granite
When does frost risk typically end in Granite?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Granite typically lands around May 24, 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Granite?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Granite typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 130 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Granite?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Granite sees about 130 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 17, about 95 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Granite?
The federal record around Granite runs heavier than most — 170 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (157), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Granite?
With about 130 frost-free days between hard freezes, Granite rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 158 to 186 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Granite's scale — its 6a band and its 130-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Granite'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 Granite’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Granite's own scale — its own ~130-day season between 28°F freezes, the 238 acres it covers and 170 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Granite's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Granite's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Oct 1 and the ~130-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 170 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Granite, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Granite's boundary and the 238 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~130-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Granite's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Granite's 238 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Granite's 238 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Granite you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 238 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 Granite-wide figureread your own land →
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