Bell Hill, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bell Hill, 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 Bell Hill 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 Bell Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bell Hill — the short answer
Bell Hill, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- 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 Bell Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bell Hill's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bell Hill
Each reading below is measured for Bell Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBell Hill runs about 281 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBell Hill 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 Bell Hill is in
Bell Hill sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Bell Hill's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clallam County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bell Hill
Every plant below cleared Bell Hill's own zone 8a and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bell Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Bell Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bell Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 30N/03W-31H01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 30N/03W-33P01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS STORE 708266Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- 30N/03W-28C03Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 30N/03W-30K03Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 30N/03W-20K01D1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- QUALITY FOOD CENTERS QFC FUEL STOP 841Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- QFC 841 705Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- SEQUIM LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 101 OUTPOST STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TED BUTCHER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SEQUIM WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bell Hill'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 Bell Hill.
Total Sites
239
within ~10 miles of Bell Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bell Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bell Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bell Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bell Hill — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (148 sites). 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.
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 Bell Hill
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 Bell Hill average
Your land is one point inside Bell Hill
Everything above resolves to Bell Hill 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 Bell Hill Average
Bell Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bell Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Bell Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Bell Hill's scale: Feb 18 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bell Hill's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bell Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bell Hill, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bell Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bell Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bell Hill average
How we know this about Bell Hill
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 Bell Hill’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 Bell Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Bell Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bell Hill typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Bell Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bell Hill typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bell Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bell Hill sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 12, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bell Hill?
The federal record around Bell Hill is a meaningful one — 239 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (148), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Bell Hill?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bell Hill's scale — its 8a band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bell Hill'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 Bell Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bell Hill's own scale — its own ~281-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,697 acres it covers and 239 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bell Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bell Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 18 and Nov 26 and the ~281-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 239 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bell Hill, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bell Hill's boundary and the 1,697 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bell Hill sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bell Hill's 1,697 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clallam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clallam 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 Clallam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bell Hill's 1,697 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bell Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,697 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Bell Hill-wide figureread your own land →