Phoenix, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Phoenix, 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 Phoenix 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 Phoenix — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Phoenix — the short answer
Phoenix, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 914 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 914 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 Phoenix's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Phoenix's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Phoenix
Each reading below is measured for Phoenix itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhoenix runs about 235 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
MeasuredPhoenix 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 Phoenix is in
Phoenix sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Phoenix's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Phoenix
Every plant below cleared Phoenix's own zone 8b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Phoenix?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Phoenix
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Phoenix. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RITE AID #6776Brownfields · 950 ft
- PHOENIX GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DSU PETERBILT & GMC TRUCKBrownfields · 2200 ft
- PHOENIX CHEVRON CIRCLE KUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MEDFORD STOPPING CENTER #24Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- THE HOME DEPOT HD8557Brownfields · 2600 ft
- PHOENIX, CITY OFPFAS · 2600 ft
- Phoenix Circle K/76 #162Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NORMAN LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 38S/01W-16ABBNitrate · 0.5 mi
- VACANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SKUNDRICK, DONALD T.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Phoenix'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 Phoenix.
Total Sites
663
within ~10 miles of Phoenix
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Phoenix
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Phoenix
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Phoenix, Mining runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Phoenix. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Phoenix
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 Phoenix average
Your land is one point inside Phoenix
Everything above resolves to Phoenix as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 914 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 Phoenix Average
Phoenix Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Phoenix
- ●One soil character for all of Phoenix
- ●Frost dates read at Phoenix's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Phoenix's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Phoenix
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Phoenix, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Phoenix averages can't show:
We read public map data around Phoenix — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Phoenix average
How we know this about Phoenix
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 Phoenix’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 Phoenix
When does frost risk typically end in Phoenix?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Phoenix typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Phoenix?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Phoenix typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Phoenix?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Phoenix sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 25, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Phoenix?
The federal record around Phoenix is a meaningful one — 663 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (347), 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 Phoenix?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Phoenix's scale — its 8b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Phoenix'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 Phoenix’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Phoenix's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 914 acres it covers and 663 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Phoenix's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Phoenix's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 8 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 663 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Phoenix, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Phoenix's boundary and the 914 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Phoenix's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Phoenix's 914 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Phoenix's 914 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Phoenix you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 914 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 Phoenix-wide figureread your own land →
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