Imbler, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Imbler, 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 Imbler 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 Imbler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Imbler — the short answer
Imbler, Oregon: USDA zone 6b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 138 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 138 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 6b is Imbler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Imbler's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Imbler
Each reading below is measured for Imbler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredImbler runs about 165 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
MeasuredImbler sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Imbler is in
Imbler sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Imbler's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Imbler
Every plant below cleared Imbler's own zone 6b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Imbler?
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 Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Imbler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Imbler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IMBLER CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BLUE MT SEEDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- IMBLER RFPDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BARENBURG USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- H G WAGNER & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SUMMERVILLE STORE & TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CASEY'S AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TERRA MAGIC FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- ARNOLDUS, ALFRED A - TRICO FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- LATHROP, RONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- TEAM LEGACY INCBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- 01N/39E-16DBD1Nitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Imbler'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 Imbler.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Imbler
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Imbler
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Imbler
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Imbler, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Imbler — Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Imbler
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 Imbler average
Your land is one point inside Imbler
Everything above resolves to Imbler as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 138 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 Imbler Average
Imbler Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Imbler
- ●One soil character for all of Imbler
- ●Frost dates read at Imbler's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Imbler's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Imbler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Imbler, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Imbler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Imbler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Imbler average
How we know this about Imbler
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 Imbler’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 Imbler
When does frost risk typically end in Imbler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Imbler typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Imbler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Imbler typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Imbler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Imbler sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 25, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Imbler?
The federal record around Imbler shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Imbler?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Imbler's scale — its 6b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Imbler'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 Imbler’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Imbler's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 138 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Imbler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Imbler's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 9 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Imbler, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Imbler's boundary and the 138 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Imbler's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Imbler's 138 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Imbler's 138 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Imbler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 138 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Imbler-wide figureread your own land →
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