Rockaway Beach, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rockaway Beach, 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 Rockaway Beach 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 Rockaway Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rockaway Beach — the short answer
Rockaway Beach, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Tillamook County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Tillamook County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Tillamook County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Tillamook County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Rockaway Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockaway Beach's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockaway Beach
Each reading below is measured for Rockaway Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRockaway Beach runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Tillamook County, the closest normal to Rockaway Beach) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRockaway Beach 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 Rockaway Beach is in
Rockaway Beach sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Rockaway Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tillamook County.
What Grows in Rockaway Beach
Every plant below cleared Rockaway Beach's own zone 9a and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockaway Beach?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Rockaway Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockaway Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROCKAWAY WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CENTER MARKET FOOD & FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHELDON, HOMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROCKAWAY BEACH, CITY OF - CITY SHOPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROCKAWAY BEACH, CITY OF - LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROCKAWAY BEACH, CITY OF WASTEWATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- J & J VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SNUGGERUD, K.L.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TWIN ROCKS FRIENDS CONFERENCE ASSN.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Watrous ProspectMining · 2.0 mi
- WatrousMining · 2.0 mi
- SHOREWOOD TRAVEL TRAILER VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockaway Beach'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 Rockaway Beach.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Rockaway Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rockaway Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockaway Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockaway Beach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rockaway Beach — CAFO (14 sites) and Mining (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Rockaway Beach
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 Rockaway Beach average
Your land is one point inside Rockaway Beach
Everything above resolves to Rockaway Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tillamook 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 Rockaway Beach Average
Rockaway Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Rockaway Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Rockaway Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Rockaway Beach's scale: Feb 13 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockaway Beach's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockaway Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockaway Beach, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockaway Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockaway Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockaway Beach average
How we know this about Rockaway Beach
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 Tillamook 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 Rockaway Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Rockaway Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockaway Beach typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Rockaway Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockaway Beach typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockaway Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockaway Beach sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 15, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockaway Beach?
The federal record around Rockaway Beach is a meaningful one — 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rockaway Beach?
From about Oct 30 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 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 Nov 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rockaway Beach's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockaway Beach'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 Rockaway Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rockaway Beach's own scale — the 1,024 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockaway Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockaway Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockaway Beach's boundary and the 1,024 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rockaway Beach's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rockaway Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tillamook County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockaway Beach's 1,024 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tillamook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tillamook 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 Tillamook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockaway Beach's 1,024 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockaway Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,024 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rockaway Beach-wide figureread your own land →