Haines, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Haines, 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 Haines 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 Haines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Haines — the short answer
Haines, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- 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
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 484 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 Haines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haines's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Haines
Each reading below is measured for Haines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHaines runs about 150 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHaines 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 Haines is in
Haines sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Haines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baker County.
What Grows in Haines
Every plant below cleared Haines's own zone 6a and its 150-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Haines?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Haines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Haines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLE BROTHERS AMERICAN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RR - HAINES TOOL HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CASCADE UTILITIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Magpie MineMining · 1.3 mi
- Coyote Peak ProspectMining · 1.3 mi
- BAKER MILL & GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NORTHWEST PIPELINE LLCBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- ANTHONY LAKES MOUNTAIN RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- French JoeMining · 5.3 mi
- VALLEY CHEMICALUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES 159 SATELLITEBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- Elkhorn Consolidated Mining Co.Mining · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haines'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 Haines.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Haines
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Haines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Haines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haines, Mining runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Haines. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Haines
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 Haines average
Your land is one point inside Haines
Everything above resolves to Haines as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 484 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 Haines Average
Haines Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Haines
- ●One soil character for all of Haines
- ●Frost dates read at Haines's scale: May 4 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haines's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Haines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haines, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haines average
How we know this about Haines
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 Haines’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 Haines
When does frost risk typically end in Haines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haines typically lands around May 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 May 25.
When is the first frost in Haines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Haines 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 150 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Haines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haines sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 17, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haines?
The federal record around Haines is a meaningful one — 82 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Haines?
From about Sep 1 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 Oct 1 (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 Oct 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Haines's scale — its 6a band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haines'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 Haines’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Haines's own scale — its own ~150-day season between 28°F freezes, the 484 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Haines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 1 and the ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Haines, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Haines's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Haines's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Haines's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baker 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 Baker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Haines's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Haines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Haines-wide figureread your own land →
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