Bellingham, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bellingham, 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 Bellingham 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 Bellingham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bellingham — the short answer
Bellingham, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K 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 8b is Bellingham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellingham's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellingham
Each reading below is measured for Bellingham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellingham runs about 267 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
MeasuredBellingham 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 Bellingham is in
Bellingham sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Bellingham's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Whatcom County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bellingham
Every plant below cleared Bellingham's own zone 8b and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellingham?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Bellingham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellingham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTHWEST ALUMINUM PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- JOHN MORGAN REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- CRAIG SHULTZ CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- SAMMY'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- WELDERS SUPPLY CO N WUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- KING & DAUL TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- GUNDIES TIRE AND AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BELLINGHAM TRANSFER HEAVY HAULINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ANR FREIGHT SYSTEM BELLINGHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HALE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MR CABINETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FRANKLIN STREET YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellingham'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 Bellingham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellingham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellingham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellingham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bellingham — CAFO (22 sites) and Nitrate (218 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bellingham
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 Bellingham average
Your land is one point inside Bellingham
Everything above resolves to Bellingham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 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 Bellingham Average
Bellingham Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bellingham
- ●One soil character for all of Bellingham
- ●Frost dates read at Bellingham's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellingham's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellingham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellingham, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellingham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellingham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellingham average
How we know this about Bellingham
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 Bellingham’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 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 Bellingham
When does frost risk typically end in Bellingham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellingham typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Bellingham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellingham 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 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellingham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellingham sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 7, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellingham?
The federal record around Bellingham is a meaningful one — 691 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bellingham?
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 Bellingham's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellingham'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 Bellingham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellingham's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,047 acres it covers and 691 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellingham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellingham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 27 and Nov 21 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 691 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellingham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellingham's boundary and the 18,047 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bellingham 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 Bellingham's 18,047 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whatcom County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whatcom 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 Whatcom County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellingham's 18,047 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellingham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,047 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 Bellingham-wide figureread your own land →
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