Medford, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Medford, 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 Medford 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 Medford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Medford — the short answer
Medford, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Medford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Medford's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Medford
Each reading below is measured for Medford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMedford runs about 235 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMedford 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 Medford is in
Medford sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Medford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Medford
Every plant below cleared Medford's own zone 8b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Medford?
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 Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Medford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Medford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 37S/01W-20DBC1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- NEA PROPERTIES LLCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- VISTA PATHOLOGY LABORATORY, LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PROVIDENCE MEDFORD MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PROVIDENCE MEDFORD MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COLVIN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWNE CORPORATION #74Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE NO525Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- FIRESTONE COMPLETE AUTO CARE 6651Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- FIRESTONE #4837 - 012114Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SEARS ROEBUCK & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SEARS ROEBUCK AND COMPANY INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Medford'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 Medford.
Total Sites
744
within ~10 miles of Medford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Medford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Medford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Medford
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 Medford average
Your land is one point inside Medford
Everything above resolves to Medford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Medford Average
Medford Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Medford
- ●One soil character for all of Medford
- ●Frost dates read at Medford's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Medford's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Medford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Medford, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Medford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Medford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Medford average
How we know this about Medford
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 Medford’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 Medford
When does frost risk typically end in Medford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Medford typically lands around Mar 18, 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 Apr 8.
When is the first frost in Medford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Medford typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Medford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Medford sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 25, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Medford?
The federal record around Medford is a meaningful one — 744 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (362), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Medford?
From about Oct 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Medford's scale — its 8b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Medford'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 Medford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Medford's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,294 acres it covers and 744 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Medford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Medford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 8 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 744 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Medford, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Medford's boundary and the 18,294 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Medford'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 Medford's 18,294 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Medford's 18,294 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Medford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,294 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Medford-wide figureread your own land →
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