Harbor, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include kale, douglas fir, and garlic, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Harbor, 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 Harbor 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 Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Harbor — the short answer
Harbor, Oregon: USDA zone 10a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- 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
- Town 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 Curry County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harbor's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harbor
Each reading below is measured for Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHarbor runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Curry County, the closest normal to Harbor) — 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
MeasuredHarbor sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Harbor is in
Harbor sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Harbor'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 Harbor
Plants matched to Harbor's USDA zones 10a, 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 Harbor?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. 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 Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - BRKGBrownfields · 2200 ft
- UPS - BROOKINGS (ORHAR)Brownfields · 2200 ft
- HARBOR CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TIDEWATER CONTRACTORS, INC.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- B & B EXCAVATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TIDEWATER CONTRACTORS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PORT OF BROOKINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- USCG STATION CHETCO RIVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- USDOD; US COAST GUARDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- HABOR CHEVRON CIRCLE KUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HARBOR SANITARY DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BUENA VISTA LOOP PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harbor'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 Harbor.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Harbor
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harbor, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Harbor. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Harbor
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 Harbor average
Your land is one point inside Harbor
Everything above resolves to Harbor as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Curry County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Harbor Average
Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at Harbor's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harbor's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harbor, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harbor average
How we know this about Harbor
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harbor 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 Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harbor 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 Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harbor 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 Harbor?
The federal record around Harbor shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles 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 Harbor?
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 Harbor's scale — its 10a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harbor'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 Harbor’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Harbor's own scale — the 1,229 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harbor, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harbor's boundary and the 1,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Harbor 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 — Harbor 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 Harbor's 1,229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Curry 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 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 Harbor's 1,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,229 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Harbor-wide figureread your own land →