Milton-Freewater, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Milton-Freewater, 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 Milton-Freewater 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 Milton-Freewater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Milton-Freewater — the short answer
Milton-Freewater, Oregon: USDA zone 7b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7b is Milton-Freewater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milton-Freewater's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milton-Freewater
Each reading below is measured for Milton-Freewater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilton-Freewater runs about 226 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
MeasuredMilton-Freewater sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Milton-Freewater is in
Milton-Freewater sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Milton-Freewater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Umatilla County.
What Grows in Milton-Freewater
Every plant below cleared Milton-Freewater's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milton-Freewater?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Milton-Freewater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milton-Freewater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCLOUGHLIN UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT #3Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PREST-O CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOWNTOWN EXXON - TIME OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DON EVERETT DBA PRIBE'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LUISI TRUCK LINES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BLUE MOUNTAIN GROWERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CENTRAL SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GREER, MIKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BLACK FOREST LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BICK SNOW FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHEVRON USA INC - 96498Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- UMAPINE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milton-Freewater'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 Milton-Freewater.
Total Sites
278
within ~10 miles of Milton-Freewater
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milton-Freewater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milton-Freewater
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milton-Freewater, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Milton-Freewater — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (194 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Milton-Freewater
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 Milton-Freewater average
Your land is one point inside Milton-Freewater
Everything above resolves to Milton-Freewater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Milton-Freewater Average
Milton-Freewater Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Milton-Freewater
- ●One soil character for all of Milton-Freewater
- ●Frost dates read at Milton-Freewater's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milton-Freewater's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milton-Freewater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milton-Freewater, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milton-Freewater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milton-Freewater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milton-Freewater average
How we know this about Milton-Freewater
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 Milton-Freewater’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 Milton-Freewater
When does frost risk typically end in Milton-Freewater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milton-Freewater typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 10.
When is the first frost in Milton-Freewater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milton-Freewater typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milton-Freewater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milton-Freewater sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 18, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milton-Freewater?
The federal record around Milton-Freewater is a meaningful one — 278 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (194), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Milton-Freewater?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milton-Freewater's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milton-Freewater'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 Milton-Freewater’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Milton-Freewater's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,300 acres it covers and 278 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milton-Freewater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milton-Freewater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 1 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 278 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milton-Freewater, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milton-Freewater's boundary and the 1,300 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Milton-Freewater's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milton-Freewater's 1,300 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Umatilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Umatilla 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 Umatilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milton-Freewater's 1,300 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milton-Freewater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,300 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Milton-Freewater-wide figureread your own land →