Arlington, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Arlington, 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 Arlington 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 Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arlington — the short answer
Arlington, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- Snohomish County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- Snohomish County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- Snohomish County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Snohomish County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Arlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arlington's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arlington
Each reading below is measured for Arlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsArlington runs about 208 days between hard freezes (read from Snohomish County, the closest normal to Arlington) — 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
MeasuredArlington 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 Arlington is in
Arlington sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Arlington's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Snohomish County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arlington
Every plant below cleared Arlington's own zone 8a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arlington?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Arlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMOKEY POINT DISTRIBUTING LLC ARLINGTONBrownfields · 350 ft
- COMPOSITES ONE LLC ARLINGTONBrownfields · 450 ft
- KING FIBER GLASS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FIBERGLASS STRUCTURESToxics Release Inventory · 500 ft
- COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT INTERIORS LLC ARLINGBrownfields · 650 ft
- CUZ CONCRETE PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SMITHWAYToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- ARLINGTON CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ABW TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- AMERICAN BOILER WORKSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- T & E REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- IDI DISTRIBUTORSToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arlington'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 Arlington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arlington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arlington — Nitrate (290 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Arlington
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 Arlington average
Your land is one point inside Arlington
Everything above resolves to Arlington as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Snohomish 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 Arlington Average
Arlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Arlington
- ●One soil character for all of Arlington
- ●Frost dates read at Arlington's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arlington's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arlington, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arlington average
How we know this about Arlington
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 Snohomish 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 Arlington
When does frost risk typically end in Arlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Arlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arlington sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 26, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arlington?
The federal record around Arlington is a meaningful one — 599 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (290), the nearest Brownfields 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 Arlington?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arlington's scale — its 8a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arlington'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 Arlington’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Arlington's own scale — the 6,381 acres it covers and 599 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 599 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arlington, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arlington's boundary and the 6,381 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arlington sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Arlington has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Snohomish County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arlington's 6,381 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Snohomish County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Snohomish 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 Snohomish County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arlington's 6,381 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,381 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Arlington-wide figureread your own land →
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