Tualatin, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tualatin, 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 Tualatin 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 Tualatin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tualatin — the short answer
Tualatin, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Washington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Tualatin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tualatin's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tualatin
Each reading below is measured for Tualatin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTualatin runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Washington County, the closest normal to Tualatin) — 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
MeasuredTualatin 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 Tualatin is in
Tualatin sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Tualatin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Tualatin
Every plant below cleared Tualatin's own zone 9a and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tualatin?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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.
Documented around Tualatin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tualatin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 528 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tualatin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tualatin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLASTI-FAB INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PREPARED MEDIA LABORATORY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HD SUPPLY FACILITIES MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 750 ft
- STRATEGIC FINISHING INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- PACIFIC PRIDE TUALATIN CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SAPHIRE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PACIFIC FOODS OF OREGON, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- MOORE ELECTRONICS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- PACIFIC FOODSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- PACIFIC FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- GTE - TUALATIN CENTRAL OFFICE - 5960-B01Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FAR WEST METALSBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tualatin'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 Tualatin.
Total Sites
1,955
within ~10 miles of Tualatin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tualatin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tualatin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tualatin, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 128 sites within ~10 miles of Tualatin. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Tualatin
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 Tualatin average
Your land is one point inside Tualatin
Everything above resolves to Tualatin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Washington 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 Tualatin Average
Tualatin Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Tualatin
- ●One soil character for all of Tualatin
- ●Frost dates read at Tualatin's scale: Feb 22 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tualatin's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tualatin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tualatin, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tualatin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tualatin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tualatin average
How we know this about Tualatin
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 Washington 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 Tualatin
When does frost risk typically end in Tualatin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tualatin typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Tualatin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tualatin typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tualatin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tualatin sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 9, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tualatin?
The federal record around Tualatin is a meaningful one — 1,955 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,020), 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 Tualatin?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tualatin's scale — its 9a band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tualatin'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 Tualatin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tualatin's own scale — the 5,388 acres it covers and 1,955 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tualatin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,955 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tualatin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tualatin's boundary and the 5,388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tualatin's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tualatin checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tualatin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Washington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tualatin's 5,388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tualatin's 5,388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tualatin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,388 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 Tualatin-wide figureread your own land →