Acme, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Acme, 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 Acme 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 Acme — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Acme — the short answer
Acme, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 959 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 959 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 8a is Acme's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Acme's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Acme
Each reading below is measured for Acme itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAcme runs about 251 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredAcme sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Acme is in
Acme sits in the North Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Acme's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whatcom County.
What Grows in Acme
Every plant below cleared Acme's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Acme?
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 Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Acme
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Acme. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACME ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- ACME TURKINGTON RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- STEINER CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ASSOCIATED PETROLEUM PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KALSBEEK DAIRYCAFO · 1.4 mi
- WHATCOM CO - ACME LDFLSuperfund · 1.6 mi
- SHETLER DAIRYCAFO · 1.6 mi
- COLDSTREAM FARMS LLC - COLDSTREAM FARMS #1CAFO · 2.0 mi
- GEORGE EHGHOLMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- STRACHILA FARMS INCCAFO · 2.7 mi
- CHEVRON 93326Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CLIPPER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Acme'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 Acme.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Acme
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Acme
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Acme
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Acme, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Acme — CAFO (7 sites) and Mining (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Acme
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 Acme average
Your land is one point inside Acme
Everything above resolves to Acme as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 959 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 Acme Average
Acme Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Acme
- ●One soil character for all of Acme
- ●Frost dates read at Acme's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Acme's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Acme
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Acme, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Acme averages can't show:
We read public map data around Acme — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Acme average
How we know this about Acme
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 Acme’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 Acme
When does frost risk typically end in Acme?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Acme typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Acme?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Acme typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Acme?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Acme sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 4, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Acme?
The federal record around Acme is a meaningful one — 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), 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 Acme?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Acme's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Acme'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 Acme’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Acme's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 959 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Acme's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Acme's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 18 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Acme, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Acme's boundary and the 959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Acme's own centroid, the North CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Acme's 959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whatcom County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whatcom County
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Whatcom County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Acme's 959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Acme you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 959 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 Acme-wide figureread your own land →
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