Alder, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alder, 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 Alder 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 Alder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alder — the short answer
Alder, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Alder's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alder's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alder
Each reading below is measured for Alder itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlder runs about 252 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
MeasuredAlder 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 Alder is in
Alder sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Alder's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pierce County.
What Grows in Alder
Every plant below cleared Alder's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alder?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Alder
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alder. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALDER MAINTENANCE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TACOMA DPU ALDER DAMBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- ELBE MALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- WA DOT Elbe Rest AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- TACOMA PUBLIC UTILITIES LAGRANDE DAMBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- R J SWANSON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- LaddMining · 4.8 mi
- WA UW PACK FOREST FACILITYBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- LA GRANDE HYDROPLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- PACK FORESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- MashelMining · 5.1 mi
- GRACE KNEIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alder'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 Alder.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Alder
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alder
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alder
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alder, Mining runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Alder. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Alder
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 Alder average
Your land is one point inside Alder
Everything above resolves to Alder as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Alder Average
Alder Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Alder
- ●One soil character for all of Alder
- ●Frost dates read at Alder's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alder's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alder
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alder, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alder averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alder average
How we know this about Alder
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 Alder’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 Alder
When does frost risk typically end in Alder?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alder typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Alder?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alder typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alder?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alder sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alder?
The federal record around Alder shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alder?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alder's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alder'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 Alder’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alder's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,056 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alder's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alder's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 21 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alder, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alder's boundary and the 2,056 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alder's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alder's 2,056 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alder's 2,056 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alder you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,056 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Alder-wide figureread your own land →
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