Ukiah, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, blackberry, california poppy, and pumpkin — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ukiah, 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 Ukiah 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 Ukiah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ukiah — the short answer
Ukiah, Oregon: USDA zone 6b, about 117 days between hard freezes, across 141 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~117
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 141 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 6b is Ukiah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ukiah's 117-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ukiah
Each reading below is measured for Ukiah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUkiah runs about 117 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
MeasuredUkiah sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Ukiah is in
Ukiah sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Ukiah's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Umatilla County is mostly Columbia Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ukiah
Every plant below cleared Ukiah's own zone 6b and its 117-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ukiah?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Ukiah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ukiah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAN'S UKIAH SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- UKIAH INVESTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- NORTH FORK JOHN DAY RANGER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SKELLENGER, L CUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 05S/31E-14BDANitrate · 800 ft
- OR STATE HWY 5-12 UKIAHUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DALE WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LANDMARK INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- DALE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- UKIAH KEY-LOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
Measured from Ukiah'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 Ukiah.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ukiah
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ukiah
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 Ukiah average
Your land is one point inside Ukiah
Everything above resolves to Ukiah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 141 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 Ukiah Average
Ukiah Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ukiah
- ●One soil character for all of Ukiah
- ●Frost dates read at Ukiah's scale: May 18 to Sep 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ukiah's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ukiah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ukiah, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ukiah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ukiah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ukiah average
How we know this about Ukiah
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 Ukiah’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 Ukiah
When does frost risk typically end in Ukiah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ukiah typically lands around May 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 Jun 8.
When is the first frost in Ukiah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ukiah typically arrives around Sep 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 29, so the watching starts about Aug 13 — about 117 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ukiah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ukiah sees about 117 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Aug 29, about 82 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ukiah?
The federal record around Ukiah is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Ukiah?
With about 117 frost-free days between hard freezes, Ukiah 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 145 to 173 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Ukiah's scale — its 6b band and its 117-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ukiah'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 Ukiah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ukiah's own scale — its own ~117-day season between 28°F freezes, the 141 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ukiah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ukiah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 12 and the ~117-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ukiah, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ukiah's boundary and the 141 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~117-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ukiah sits in the Blue Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ukiah's 141 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 Ukiah's 141 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ukiah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 141 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 Ukiah-wide figureread your own land →