Bingen, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bingen, 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 Bingen 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 Bingen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bingen — the short answer
Bingen, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 398 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 Bingen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bingen's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bingen
Each reading below is measured for Bingen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBingen 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
MeasuredBingen 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 Bingen is in
Bingen sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Bingen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Klickitat County.
What Grows in Bingen
Every plant below cleared Bingen'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 Bingen?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Bingen
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bingen checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 552 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bingen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bingen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SDS LUMBER COToxics Release Inventory · 500 ft
- SDS LUMBER COBrownfields · 500 ft
- BNR BINGEN-WHITE SALMON PRINT 371/0SUB 2NDUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SDS LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WILSON OIL INC BINGENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BINGEN FORD LAMPHIEAR AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HATT'S FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WILSON OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HUNSAKER OIL COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FRANCIS GADDIS & DON KRENZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COLUMBIA RIVER LOG SERVICESWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- UNOCAL BULK PLANT 0046Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bingen'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 Bingen.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Bingen
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bingen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bingen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bingen, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bingen — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (134 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bingen
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 Bingen average
Your land is one point inside Bingen
Everything above resolves to Bingen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Bingen Average
Bingen Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bingen
- ●One soil character for all of Bingen
- ●Frost dates read at Bingen's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bingen's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bingen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bingen, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bingen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bingen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bingen average
How we know this about Bingen
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 Bingen’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 Bingen
When does frost risk typically end in Bingen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bingen typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Bingen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bingen typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bingen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bingen sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 6, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bingen?
The federal record around Bingen is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Bingen?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bingen's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bingen'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 Bingen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bingen's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bingen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bingen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 26 and Nov 20 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bingen, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bingen's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bingen's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bingen checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bingen's 398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Klickitat County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Klickitat 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 Klickitat County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bingen's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bingen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Bingen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Washington
Growing region
Nearby growing guides