Bay Center, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bay Center, 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 Bay Center 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 Bay Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bay Center — the short answer
Bay Center, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 602 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 602 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 Pacific County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bay Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bay Center's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bay Center
Each reading below is measured for Bay Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBay Center runs about 207 days between hard freezes (read from Pacific County, the closest normal to Bay Center) — 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
MeasuredBay Center 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 Bay Center is in
Bay Center sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Bay Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pacific County.
What Grows in Bay Center
Plants matched to Bay Center's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bay Center?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Bay Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bay Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROBINSON AND ROUNDS FISH CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- 13N/10W-08R01Nitrate · 1800 ft
- BAY CENTER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTH BEACH WATERPFAS · 4.3 mi
- Leadbetter PointMining · 4.9 mi
- TOKELAND MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- 14N/10W-18D01Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 14N/11W-13A05Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- OYSTERVILLE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- DUN PAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- COAST OYSTER CO TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- 14N/11W-12P04Nitrate · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bay Center'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 Bay Center.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Bay Center
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bay Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bay Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bay Center, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bay Center — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bay Center
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 Bay Center average
Your land is one point inside Bay Center
Everything above resolves to Bay Center as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 602 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pacific 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 Bay Center Average
Bay Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bay Center
- ●One soil character for all of Bay Center
- ●Frost dates read at Bay Center's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bay Center's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bay Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bay Center, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bay Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bay Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bay Center average
How we know this about Bay Center
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 Pacific 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 Bay Center
When does frost risk typically end in Bay Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bay Center typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bay Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bay Center typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bay Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bay Center sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bay Center?
The federal record around Bay Center shows 83 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bay Center?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bay Center's scale — its 9a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bay Center'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 Bay Center’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Bay Center's own scale — the 602 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bay Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bay Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bay Center's boundary and the 602 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Bay Center's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bay Center has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pacific County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bay Center's 602 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pacific County
- The candidate plant list — Washington's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Washington
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pacific 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 Pacific County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bay Center's 602 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bay Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 602 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bay Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Washington
Growing region
Nearby growing guides