Pendleton, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pendleton, 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 Pendleton 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 Pendleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pendleton — the short answer
Pendleton, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 7a is Pendleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pendleton's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pendleton
Each reading below is measured for Pendleton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPendleton runs about 214 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
MeasuredPendleton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Pendleton is in
Pendleton sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Pendleton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Umatilla County.
What Grows in Pendleton
Every plant below cleared Pendleton's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pendleton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Pendleton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pendleton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST RENTALS & SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CARNER CHRYSLER-NISSANUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KEYSTONE RV COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- EASTERN OREGON TRAINING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EASTERN OREGON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- EASTERN OREGON PSYCHIATRIC CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- UPS PENDLETONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- EASTERN OREGON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PENDLETON, CITY OFPFAS · 2000 ft
- BLUE MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BLUE MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LIPPERT COMPONENTS PLANT 27Toxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pendleton'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 Pendleton.
Total Sites
184
within ~10 miles of Pendleton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pendleton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pendleton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pendleton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 117 sites within ~10 miles of Pendleton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pendleton
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 Pendleton average
Your land is one point inside Pendleton
Everything above resolves to Pendleton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Pendleton Average
Pendleton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pendleton
- ●One soil character for all of Pendleton
- ●Frost dates read at Pendleton's scale: Mar 29 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pendleton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pendleton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pendleton, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pendleton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pendleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pendleton average
How we know this about Pendleton
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 Pendleton’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 Pendleton
When does frost risk typically end in Pendleton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pendleton typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Pendleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pendleton typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pendleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pendleton sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 15, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pendleton?
The federal record around Pendleton is a meaningful one — 184 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pendleton?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pendleton's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pendleton'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 Pendleton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pendleton's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,408 acres it covers and 184 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pendleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pendleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Oct 29 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pendleton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pendleton's boundary and the 7,408 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pendleton's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pendleton's 7,408 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 Pendleton's 7,408 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pendleton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,408 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pendleton-wide figureread your own land →