Oak Grove, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Oak Grove, 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 Oak Grove 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 Oak Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oak Grove — the short answer
Oak Grove, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Clackamas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Oak Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Grove's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Grove
Each reading below is measured for Oak Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOak Grove runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Clackamas County, the closest normal to Oak Grove) — 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
MeasuredOak Grove sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Oak Grove is in
Oak Grove sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Oak Grove's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clackamas County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Oak Grove
Every plant below cleared Oak Grove's own zone 9a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak Grove?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Oak Grove
Survey cells within 31 miles of Oak Grove checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 530 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oak Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALET CLEANERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- OAK LODGE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PANOCO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Q-LUBE #1117Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OAK GROVE AUTO BODY & PAINTBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FRED MEYER OAK GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FRED MEYER OAK GROVE/VERNON, P(F MEYERBrownfields · 1500 ft
- FIRESTONE #3556 - 021954Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PARR LUMBER COMPANY - OAK GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET NO 3144Brownfields · 2100 ft
- U-HAUL CENTER OF MCLOUGHLIN BLVDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CHEVRON SS 94637Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Grove
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Oak Grove
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 Oak Grove average
Your land is one point inside Oak Grove
Everything above resolves to Oak Grove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clackamas County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Oak Grove Average
Oak Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Oak Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Grove's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Grove's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Grove, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Grove average
How we know this about Oak Grove
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 Clackamas County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Oak Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Grove typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Oak Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Grove typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Grove sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 8, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Grove?
The federal record around Oak Grove is a meaningful one — 3,383 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,897), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Oak Grove?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oak Grove's scale — its 9a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oak Grove's own scale — the 2,498 acres it covers and 3,383 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,383 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Grove, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Grove's boundary and the 2,498 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Oak Grove sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Oak Grove checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oak Grove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clackamas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oak Grove's 2,498 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clackamas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clackamas 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 Clackamas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Grove's 2,498 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,498 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Oak Grove-wide figureread your own land →