Carson, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carson, 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 Carson 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 Carson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carson — the short answer
Carson, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 8a is Carson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carson's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carson
Each reading below is measured for Carson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarson runs about 263 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
MeasuredCarson sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Carson is in
Carson sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Carson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Skamania County.
What Grows in Carson
Every plant below cleared Carson's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Carson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Carson 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 Carson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARWOOD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- OBER LOGGING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WIND RIVER TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WIND RIVER MARKET & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SKAMANIA PUD 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CARSON CRUSHING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HSC LOGGING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HOME VALLEY GROCERY 110Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WIND RIVER RANGER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- HOME VALLEY VENEER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- HUNSAKER OIL - STEVENSON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- DELMAR INC 609Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carson'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 Carson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carson — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (48 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Carson
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 Carson average
Your land is one point inside Carson
Everything above resolves to Carson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Carson Average
Carson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Carson
- ●One soil character for all of Carson
- ●Frost dates read at Carson's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carson's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carson, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carson average
How we know this about Carson
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 Carson’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 Carson
When does frost risk typically end in Carson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carson typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Carson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carson typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carson sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 9, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carson?
The federal record around Carson is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Carson?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carson's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carson'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 Carson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carson's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,066 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 23 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carson's boundary and the 3,066 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carson's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Carson 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 Carson's 3,066 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Skamania County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Skamania 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 Skamania County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carson's 3,066 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,066 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Carson-wide figureread your own land →