Bainbridge Island, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bainbridge Island, 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 Bainbridge Island 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 Bainbridge Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bainbridge Island — the short answer
Bainbridge Island, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Kitsap County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bainbridge Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bainbridge Island's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bainbridge Island
Each reading below is measured for Bainbridge Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBainbridge Island runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Kitsap County, the closest normal to Bainbridge Island) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBainbridge Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Bainbridge Island is in
Bainbridge Island sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Bainbridge Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kitsap County.
What Grows in Bainbridge Island
Every plant below cleared Bainbridge Island's own zone 9a and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bainbridge Island?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Bainbridge Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bainbridge Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOCKETT & OLSEN BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Sakai PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HUNGRY BEAR MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LUMBERMENS OF BAINBRIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KITSAP COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHEVRON USA INC SS 200425Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CHEVRON 96142Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RITE AID 5215Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE 1252Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GAS STATIIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bainbridge Island'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 Bainbridge Island.
Total Sites
2,384
within ~10 miles of Bainbridge Island
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
25 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bainbridge Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bainbridge Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bainbridge Island, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,527 sites within ~10 miles of Bainbridge Island. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bainbridge Island
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 Bainbridge Island average
Your land is one point inside Bainbridge Island
Everything above resolves to Bainbridge Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 18K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kitsap 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 Bainbridge Island Average
Bainbridge Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bainbridge Island
- ●One soil character for all of Bainbridge Island
- ●Frost dates read at Bainbridge Island's scale: Feb 15 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bainbridge Island's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bainbridge Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bainbridge Island, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bainbridge Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bainbridge Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bainbridge Island average
How we know this about Bainbridge Island
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 Kitsap 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 Bainbridge Island
When does frost risk typically end in Bainbridge Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bainbridge Island typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 8.
When is the first frost in Bainbridge Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bainbridge Island typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bainbridge Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bainbridge Island sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 13, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bainbridge Island?
The federal record around Bainbridge Island runs heavier than most — 2,384 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,527), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bainbridge Island?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bainbridge Island's scale — its 9a band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bainbridge Island'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 Bainbridge Island’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bainbridge Island's own scale — the 17,673 acres it covers and 2,384 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bainbridge Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,384 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bainbridge Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bainbridge Island's boundary and the 17,673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bainbridge Island's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bainbridge Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kitsap County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bainbridge Island's 17,673 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kitsap County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kitsap 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 Kitsap County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bainbridge Island's 17,673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bainbridge Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,673 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bainbridge Island-wide figureread your own land →