Wasco, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wasco, 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 Wasco 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 Wasco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wasco — the short answer
Wasco, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 645 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 645 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 7a is Wasco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wasco's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wasco
Each reading below is measured for Wasco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWasco runs about 192 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWasco sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Wasco is in
Wasco sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Wasco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sherman County.
What Grows in Wasco
Every plant below cleared Wasco's own zone 7a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wasco?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Wasco
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wasco checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 548 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wasco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wasco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DINTY'S TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- O'MEARA, PHILIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SHERMAN AVIATION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- VAN GILDER, RAYMONDUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MILLER MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MID COLUMBIA PRODUCERS INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JOHN DAY SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- BIGLOW CANYON WIND FARMBrownfields · 5.8 mi
- BIGGS 76Underground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- CITY OF RUFUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- JOHN DAY DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wasco'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 Wasco.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Wasco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wasco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wasco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wasco, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Wasco. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Wasco
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 Wasco average
Your land is one point inside Wasco
Everything above resolves to Wasco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 645 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 Wasco Average
Wasco Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wasco
- ●One soil character for all of Wasco
- ●Frost dates read at Wasco's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wasco's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wasco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wasco, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wasco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wasco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wasco average
How we know this about Wasco
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 Wasco’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 Wasco
When does frost risk typically end in Wasco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wasco typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Wasco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wasco typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wasco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wasco sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 9, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wasco?
The federal record around Wasco is a meaningful one — 44 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Wasco?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wasco's scale — its 7a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wasco'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 Wasco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wasco's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 645 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wasco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wasco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 23 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wasco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wasco's boundary and the 645 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wasco's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wasco checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wasco's 645 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sherman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sherman 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 Sherman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wasco's 645 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wasco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 645 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 Wasco-wide figureread your own land →
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