Boyds, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Boyds, 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 Boyds 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 Boyds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boyds — the short answer
Boyds, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 125 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 125 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 6b is Boyds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boyds's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boyds
Each reading below is measured for Boyds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBoyds runs about 193 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBoyds sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Boyds is in
Boyds sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Boyds's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ferry County.
What Grows in Boyds
Every plant below cleared Boyds's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boyds?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Boyds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boyds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Renner LakeMining · 0.7 mi
- TRIPP CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KETTLE FALLS WA LINE SEG 377 PRINT 428Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MISSION DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 007285Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TEXACO HWY 395 KETTLE FALLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOYDS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NapoleonMining · 1.6 mi
- High River Junction Mining CoMining · 2.3 mi
- Kelly HillMining · 2.7 mi
- VanasseMining · 2.8 mi
- Bonnie GroupMining · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boyds'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 Boyds.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boyds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boyds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boyds, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Boyds — Mining (87 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Boyds
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 Boyds average
Your land is one point inside Boyds
Everything above resolves to Boyds as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 125 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 Boyds Average
Boyds Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Boyds
- ●One soil character for all of Boyds
- ●Frost dates read at Boyds's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boyds's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boyds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boyds, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boyds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boyds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boyds average
How we know this about Boyds
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 Boyds’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 Boyds
When does frost risk typically end in Boyds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boyds typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Boyds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boyds typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boyds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boyds sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 8, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boyds?
The federal record around Boyds runs heavier than most — 129 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (87), the nearest Mining record about 0.7 miles 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 Boyds?
From about Sep 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 Oct 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boyds's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boyds'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 Boyds’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Boyds's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 125 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boyds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boyds's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 22 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boyds, the closest Mining record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boyds's boundary and the 125 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boyds's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boyds's 125 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ferry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ferry 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 Ferry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boyds's 125 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boyds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 125 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.7 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 Boyds-wide figureread your own land →