Buena, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Buena, 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 Buena 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 Buena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Buena — the short answer
Buena, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 556 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 556 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 7a is Buena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buena's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buena
Each reading below is measured for Buena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuena runs about 228 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBuena sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Buena is in
Buena sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Buena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yakima County.
What Grows in Buena
Every plant below cleared Buena's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buena?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Buena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRIDENT AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS INC BUENABrownfields · 550 ft
- ROBYS SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GOLD NUGGET MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FRED DILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BUENA LABOR CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 11N/20E-21B02Nitrate · 1800 ft
- LES BARBEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 11N/20E-22Q01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11N/20E-15B02Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 11N/20E-14M03Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 11N/20E-10P01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SCARLETT ORCHARDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buena'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 Buena.
Total Sites
363
within ~10 miles of Buena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buena — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (268 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Buena
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 Buena average
Your land is one point inside Buena
Everything above resolves to Buena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 556 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 Buena Average
Buena Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Buena
- ●One soil character for all of Buena
- ●Frost dates read at Buena's scale: Mar 16 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buena's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buena, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buena average
How we know this about Buena
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 Buena’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 Buena
When does frost risk typically end in Buena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buena typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Buena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buena typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buena sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 16, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buena?
The federal record around Buena is a meaningful one — 363 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (268), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Buena?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buena's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buena'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 Buena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Buena's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 556 acres it covers and 363 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Oct 30 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 363 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buena, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buena's boundary and the 556 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buena's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buena's 556 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yakima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yakima 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 Yakima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buena's 556 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 556 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Buena-wide figureread your own land →