Kerby, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kerby, 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 Kerby 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 Kerby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kerby — the short answer
Kerby, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8b is Kerby's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kerby's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kerby
Each reading below is measured for Kerby itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKerby runs about 193 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
MeasuredKerby sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Kerby is in
Kerby sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kerby's own centroid rather than borrowed from Josephine County.
What Grows in Kerby
Every plant below cleared Kerby's own zone 8b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kerby?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Kerby
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kerby. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLAKLEY AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GAS-N-GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JOSEPHINE COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ROGUE TURCK BODY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ILLINOIS VALLEY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- IV AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Eight Dollar Mtn LateriteMining · 1.7 mi
- Free and Easy LateriteMining · 1.8 mi
- GENERAL AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LAIDLAW TRANSIT INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- EVERGREEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- THREE RIVERS SCHOOL DIST. - ILLINOIS VALLEY H.S.Brownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kerby'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 Kerby.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Kerby
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kerby
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kerby
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kerby, Mining runs higher than the national average — 177 sites within ~10 miles of Kerby. 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 Kerby
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 Kerby average
Your land is one point inside Kerby
Everything above resolves to Kerby as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Kerby Average
Kerby Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kerby
- ●One soil character for all of Kerby
- ●Frost dates read at Kerby's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kerby's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kerby
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kerby, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kerby averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kerby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kerby average
How we know this about Kerby
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 Kerby’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 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 Kerby
When does frost risk typically end in Kerby?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kerby typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Kerby?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kerby typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kerby?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kerby sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 12, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kerby?
The federal record around Kerby is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (177), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Kerby?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kerby's scale — its 8b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kerby'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 Kerby’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kerby's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,652 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kerby's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kerby's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 26 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kerby, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kerby's boundary and the 1,652 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kerby's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kerby's 1,652 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Josephine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Josephine 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 Josephine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kerby's 1,652 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kerby you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,652 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Kerby-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oregon
Growing region
Nearby growing guides