Mehama, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Mehama, 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 Mehama 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 Mehama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mehama — the short answer
Mehama, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 276 days between hard freezes, across 293 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~276
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 293 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 Mehama's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mehama's 276-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Mehama's own 30-year record measures about 276 days between 28°F killing freezes — 33 days longer than Marion County's ~243. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Mehama's ~276-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mehama
Each reading below is measured for Mehama itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMehama runs about 276 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredMehama 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 Mehama is in
Mehama sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Mehama's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Mehama
Every plant below cleared Mehama's own zone 8b and its 276-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mehama?
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 Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Mehama
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mehama checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 487 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mehama
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mehama. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARDWOOD COMPONENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DON'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MARI-LINN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MARI-LINN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WILSON HATCHERY & POULTRY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LINN COUNTY LYONS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- OR STATE FORESTRY - SANTIAM GUARD STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LYONS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WILSON OPERATIONS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- UNION STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NIELSON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- FRERES LUMBER CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mehama'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 Mehama.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Mehama
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mehama
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mehama
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mehama, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Mehama. 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 Mehama
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 Mehama average
Your land is one point inside Mehama
Everything above resolves to Mehama as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Mehama Average
Mehama Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mehama
- ●One soil character for all of Mehama
- ●Frost dates read at Mehama's scale: Feb 22 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mehama's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mehama
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mehama, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mehama averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mehama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mehama average
How we know this about Mehama
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 Mehama’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 Mehama
When does frost risk typically end in Mehama?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mehama typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Mehama?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mehama typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 276 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mehama?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mehama sees about 276 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 11, about 241 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mehama?
The federal record around Mehama shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Mehama?
From about Oct 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 Nov 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mehama's scale — its 8b band and its 276-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mehama'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 Mehama’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mehama's own scale — its own ~276-day season between 28°F freezes, the 293 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mehama's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mehama's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 22 and Nov 25 and the ~276-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mehama, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mehama's boundary and the 293 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~276-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mehama's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mehama checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mehama's 293 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mehama's 293 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mehama you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 293 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Mehama-wide figureread your own land →