Silver Lake, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect pumpkin, blackberry, california poppy, and zucchini to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Silver Lake, 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 Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Silver Lake — the short answer
Silver Lake, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 96 days between hard freezes, across 946 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~96
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 946 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 6a is Silver Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Silver Lake's 96-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Silver Lake
Each reading below is measured for Silver Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSilver Lake runs about 96 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSilver Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Silver Lake is in
Silver Lake sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Silver Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Silver Lake
Every plant below cleared Silver Lake's own zone 6a and its 96-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Silver Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Silver Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Silver Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SILVERLAKE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- OR STATE HWY, 4-11 SILVER LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SYCAN CAPACITOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- USDA PUDDLE SPRINGS WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SILVER LAKE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WESTERN FUEL & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SILVER LAKE SHOP YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- USDA USFS R06 FREMONT NF SILVER LAKE RANGER DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- USDA USFS R06 FREMONT NF SILVER LAKE RANGER DISTRICTSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- ODOT HWY DIV SILVER LAKEBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- FORT ROCK SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- USFSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
Measured from Silver Lake'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 Silver Lake.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Silver Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Silver Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Silver Lake
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 Silver Lake average
Your land is one point inside Silver Lake
Everything above resolves to Silver Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 946 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 town 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 Silver Lake Average
Silver Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Silver Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Silver Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Silver Lake's scale: Jun 5 to Sep 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Silver Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Silver Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Silver Lake, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Silver Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Silver Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Silver Lake average
How we know this about Silver Lake
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Silver Lake’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Silver Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Silver Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Lake typically lands around Jun 5, 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 Jun 26.
When is the first frost in Silver Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Lake typically arrives around Sep 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 26, so the watching starts about Aug 10 — about 96 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Silver Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Silver Lake sees about 96 frost-free days — roughly Jun 5 through Sep 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 26 to Aug 26, about 61 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Silver Lake?
The federal record around Silver Lake is a meaningful one — 12 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Silver Lake?
With about 96 frost-free days between hard freezes, Silver Lake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 124 to 152 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 5 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Silver Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 96-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Silver Lake'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 Silver Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Silver Lake's own scale — its own ~96-day season between 28°F freezes, the 946 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Silver Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Silver Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 5 and Sep 9 and the ~96-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Silver Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Silver Lake's boundary and the 946 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~96-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Silver Lake's own centroid, the Northern Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Silver Lake's 946 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Silver Lake's 946 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Silver Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 946 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 Silver Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oregon
Wider growing context
What grows across OregonSilver Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Oregon as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides