Oregon City, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oregon City, 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 Oregon City 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 Oregon City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oregon City — the short answer
Oregon City, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 6K 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 Oregon City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oregon City's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oregon City
Each reading below is measured for Oregon City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOregon City runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Clackamas County, the closest normal to Oregon City) — 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
MeasuredOregon City 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 Oregon City is in
Oregon City sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Oregon City'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 Oregon City
Every plant below cleared Oregon City'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 Oregon City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Oregon City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Oregon City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 525 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oregon City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oregon City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEATHERS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CAROLYN MILLER PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- OREGON CITY ARCO #424Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- OREGON CITY, CITY OF - CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- AA RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BP OIL SITE #2611004Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SKYLES DRILLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HILLTOP CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OREGON CITY WATER RESERVOIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HAL'S CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OREGON CITY, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WALGREENS #3801Brownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oregon City'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 Oregon City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oregon City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oregon City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oregon City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oregon City — Toxics Release Inventory (108 sites) and PFAS (13 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Oregon City
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 Oregon City average
Your land is one point inside Oregon City
Everything above resolves to Oregon City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clackamas County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Oregon City Average
Oregon City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Oregon City
- ●One soil character for all of Oregon City
- ●Frost dates read at Oregon City's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oregon City's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oregon City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oregon City, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oregon City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oregon City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oregon City average
How we know this about Oregon City
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 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 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 Oregon City
When does frost risk typically end in Oregon City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oregon City 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 Oregon City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oregon City 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 Oregon City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oregon City 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 Oregon City?
The federal record around Oregon City is a meaningful one — 1,474 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (764), 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 Oregon City?
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 Oregon City's scale — its 9a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oregon City'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 Oregon City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oregon City's own scale — the 6,433 acres it covers and 1,474 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oregon City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,474 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oregon City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oregon City's boundary and the 6,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Oregon City sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Oregon City checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oregon City 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 Oregon City's 6,433 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 Oregon City's 6,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oregon City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,433 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 Oregon City-wide figureread your own land →