Boulevard Park, 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 kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Boulevard Park, 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 Boulevard Park 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 Boulevard Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boulevard Park — the short answer
Boulevard Park, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 752 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 752 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 King County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Boulevard Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boulevard Park's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boulevard Park
Each reading below is measured for Boulevard Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBoulevard Park runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Boulevard Park) — 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
MeasuredBoulevard Park 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 Boulevard Park is in
Boulevard Park sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Boulevard Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Boulevard Park
Plants matched to Boulevard Park'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 Boulevard Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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 season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Boulevard Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boulevard Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEY BANK RIVERTON HEIGHTS BRANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Sea Mar Community Health Center Dominics PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CLARKLIFT OF WASHINGTON ALASKA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FMH MATERIAL HANDLING SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ICON MATERIALS SEATTLE ASPHALTToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- SOUTHPARK SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS STORE 4317Brownfields · 1900 ft
- INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SUNNYDALE CONSTRUCTION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- M A SEGALE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NRC ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES TRANSFER FACILITYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MORGAN TRUCKING INC SEATTLEBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boulevard Park'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 Boulevard Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boulevard Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boulevard Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boulevard Park, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 2,218 sites within ~10 miles of Boulevard Park. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Boulevard Park
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 Boulevard Park average
Your land is one point inside Boulevard Park
Everything above resolves to Boulevard Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 752 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King 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 Boulevard Park Average
Boulevard Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Boulevard Park
- ●One soil character for all of Boulevard Park
- ●Frost dates read at Boulevard Park's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boulevard Park's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boulevard Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boulevard Park, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boulevard Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boulevard Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boulevard Park average
How we know this about Boulevard Park
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 King 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 Boulevard Park
When does frost risk typically end in Boulevard Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boulevard Park typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Boulevard Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boulevard Park 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 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boulevard Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boulevard Park sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boulevard Park?
The federal record around Boulevard Park runs heavier than most — 3,442 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Boulevard Park?
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 Boulevard Park's scale — its 9a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boulevard Park'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 Boulevard Park’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Boulevard Park's own scale — the 752 acres it covers and 3,442 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boulevard Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,442 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boulevard Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boulevard Park's boundary and the 752 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Boulevard Park's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Boulevard Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom King County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boulevard Park's 752 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King 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 King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boulevard Park's 752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boulevard Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 752 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 Boulevard Park-wide figureread your own land →
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