La Pine, 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.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in La Pine, 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 La Pine 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 La Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Pine — the short answer
La Pine, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 La Pine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Pine's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Pine
Each reading below is measured for La Pine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Pine runs about 132 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
MeasuredLa Pine 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 La Pine is in
La Pine sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at La Pine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Deschutes County.
What Grows in La Pine
Every plant below cleared La Pine's own zone 6a and its 132-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Pine?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near La Pine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Pine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST. CHARLES FAMILY CARE CLINIC - LA PINEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 22S/10E-02BAD2Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- LAPINE SHELL #86Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ODOT LA PINEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALGREENS #21408Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- DEQ125, Stearns Ranch Domestic WellNitrate · 1.2 mi
- LA PINE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DESCHUTES COUNTY - PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WICKIUP JCT. STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ROBINSON, ORRENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LAPINE BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 52386 Glenwood Drive (GFE)Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Pine'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 La Pine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Pine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Pine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Pine, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 180 sites within ~10 miles of La Pine. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in La Pine
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 La Pine average
Your land is one point inside La Pine
Everything above resolves to La Pine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 La Pine Average
La Pine Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across La Pine
- ●One soil character for all of La Pine
- ●Frost dates read at La Pine's scale: May 20 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Pine's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Pine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Pine, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Pine averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Pine average
How we know this about La Pine
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 La Pine’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 La Pine
When does frost risk typically end in La Pine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Pine typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in La Pine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Pine typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 132 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Pine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Pine sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 15, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Pine?
The federal record around La Pine is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (180), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in La Pine?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, La Pine 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 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at La Pine's scale — its 6a band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Pine'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 La Pine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Pine's own scale — its own ~132-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,568 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Pine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Pine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 29 and the ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Pine, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Pine's boundary and the 4,568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Pine's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Pine's 4,568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Deschutes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Deschutes 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 Deschutes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Pine's 4,568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Pine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,568 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 La Pine-wide figureread your own land →