Oakridge, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Oakridge, 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 Oakridge 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 Oakridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oakridge — the short answer
Oakridge, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- 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 8b is Oakridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oakridge's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oakridge
Each reading below is measured for Oakridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOakridge runs about 255 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
MeasuredOakridge 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 Oakridge is in
Oakridge sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Oakridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lane County.
What Grows in Oakridge
Every plant below cleared Oakridge's own zone 8b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oakridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Oakridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oakridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KELLERS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RATLIFF ENTERPRISES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HILL, JAMES WUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- RAY'S AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- USWEST COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BOLIN AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BYERLEY, ORVAL RUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- LANE ELECTRIC CO-OP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RR OAKRIDGE RAIL YARDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- OAKRIDGE SCHOOL DIST. 76 - BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RIGGING SHACK CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- OAKRIDGE, CITY OF - BEECH STREET SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oakridge'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 Oakridge.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Oakridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oakridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oakridge, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 33 sites within ~10 miles of Oakridge. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Oakridge
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 Oakridge average
Your land is one point inside Oakridge
Everything above resolves to Oakridge 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 Oakridge Average
Oakridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Oakridge
- ●One soil character for all of Oakridge
- ●Frost dates read at Oakridge's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oakridge's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oakridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oakridge, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oakridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oakridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oakridge average
How we know this about Oakridge
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 Oakridge’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 Oakridge
When does frost risk typically end in Oakridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oakridge typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Oakridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oakridge typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oakridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oakridge sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 5, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oakridge?
The federal record around Oakridge is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), 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 Oakridge?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oakridge's scale — its 8b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oakridge'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 Oakridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oakridge's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,384 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oakridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oakridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 19 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oakridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oakridge's boundary and the 1,384 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oakridge's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oakridge's 1,384 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lane 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 Lane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oakridge's 1,384 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oakridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,384 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 Oakridge-wide figureread your own land →