Ames Lake, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ames Lake, 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 Ames Lake 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 Ames Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ames Lake — the short answer
Ames Lake, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 King County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Ames Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ames Lake's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ames Lake
Each reading below is measured for Ames Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAmes Lake runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Ames Lake) — 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
MeasuredAmes Lake 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 Ames Lake is in
Ames Lake sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Ames Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Ames Lake
Every plant below cleared Ames Lake's own zone 8b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ames Lake?
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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Ames Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ames Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 25N/07E-18C01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- TOLT MCDONALD PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- RIVERVIEW SCHOOL DISTRICT TOLT MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- EDM WIRE-CUT NORTHWESTToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- TOLT MIDDLE SCHOOL RIVERVIEW SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ANDURIL INDUSTRIES, INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ELEANOR CREWSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Red Fall Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JACKSONS 629Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CARNATION CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- GARY REMLINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- R L C TIMBER CUTTING CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ames Lake'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 Ames Lake.
Total Sites
601
within ~10 miles of Ames Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ames Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ames Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ames Lake, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Ames Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ames Lake
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 Ames Lake average
Your land is one point inside Ames Lake
Everything above resolves to Ames Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Ames Lake Average
Ames Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Ames Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Ames Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Ames Lake's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ames Lake's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ames Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ames Lake, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ames Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ames Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ames Lake average
How we know this about Ames Lake
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 King 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 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 Ames Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Ames Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ames Lake 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 Ames Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ames Lake 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 Ames Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ames Lake 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 Ames Lake?
The federal record around Ames Lake is a meaningful one — 601 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (326), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Ames Lake?
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 Ames Lake's scale — its 8b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ames Lake'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 Ames Lake’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ames Lake's own scale — the 1,025 acres it covers and 601 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ames Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 601 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ames Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ames Lake's boundary and the 1,025 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ames Lake's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ames Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom King County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ames Lake's 1,025 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ames Lake's 1,025 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ames Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,025 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Ames Lake-wide figureread your own land →