West Linn, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in West Linn, 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 West Linn 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 West Linn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
West Linn — the short answer
West Linn, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- Clackamas 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 Clackamas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is West Linn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Linn's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Linn
Each reading below is measured for West Linn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWest Linn runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Clackamas County, the closest normal to West Linn) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWest Linn sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 West Linn is in
West Linn sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at West Linn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clackamas County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in West Linn
Every plant below cleared West Linn's own zone 8b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Linn?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around West Linn
Survey cells within 31 miles of West Linn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 527 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Linn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Linn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAFEWAY STORE NO 1713Brownfields · 2200 ft
- PERFECTO DRY CLEANERS& LAUNDRYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ODOT REGION 1 BRIDGE 00357Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- WEST LINN, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BOLTON PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WEST LINN HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SULLIVAN POWER PLANTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- RIVER STREET PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- COE CIVIL WILLAMETTE FALLS LOCKSSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- HAGGEN OPCO NORTH LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WEST LINN PAPER MILLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Linn'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 West Linn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Linn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Linn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Linn, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 142 sites within ~10 miles of West Linn. 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 West Linn
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 West Linn average
Your land is one point inside West Linn
Everything above resolves to West Linn as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clackamas 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 West Linn Average
West Linn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across West Linn
- ●One soil character for all of West Linn
- ●Frost dates read at West Linn's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Linn's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Linn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Linn, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Linn averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Linn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Linn average
How we know this about West Linn
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 Clackamas 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 West Linn
When does frost risk typically end in West Linn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Linn typically lands around Mar 25, 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 Apr 15.
When is the first frost in West Linn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Linn typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Linn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Linn sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 8, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Linn?
The federal record around West Linn is a meaningful one — 2,165 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,149), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 West Linn?
From about Oct 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 Nov 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Linn's scale — its 8b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Linn'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 West Linn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at West Linn's own scale — the 4,755 acres it covers and 2,165 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Linn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Linn, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Linn's boundary and the 4,755 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- West Linn sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around West Linn checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — West Linn has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clackamas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Linn's 4,755 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clackamas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clackamas 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 Clackamas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Linn's 4,755 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Linn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,755 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 West Linn-wide figureread your own land →