Cashmere, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cashmere, 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 Cashmere 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 Cashmere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cashmere — the short answer
Cashmere, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 770 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 770 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 Cashmere's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cashmere's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cashmere
Each reading below is measured for Cashmere itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCashmere runs about 223 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
MeasuredCashmere 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 Cashmere is in
Cashmere sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cashmere's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chelan County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cashmere
Every plant below cleared Cashmere's own zone 7a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cashmere?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Cashmere
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cashmere. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURLINGTON NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CASHMERE DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CASHMERE MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CASHMERE FRUIT EXCHANGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CASHMERE CENTRAL OFFICE 4060-B01Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CASCADE HELICOPTERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WILBUR ELLIS CO CASHMEREBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MISSION CREEK GROWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JACKS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BLUE STAR GROWERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BJ'S CASHMEREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 23N/19E-04D01Nitrate · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cashmere'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 Cashmere.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Cashmere
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cashmere
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cashmere
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cashmere, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 173 sites within ~10 miles of Cashmere. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Cashmere
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 Cashmere average
Your land is one point inside Cashmere
Everything above resolves to Cashmere as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 770 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 Cashmere Average
Cashmere Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cashmere
- ●One soil character for all of Cashmere
- ●Frost dates read at Cashmere's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cashmere's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cashmere
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cashmere, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cashmere averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cashmere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cashmere average
How we know this about Cashmere
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 Cashmere’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 Cashmere
When does frost risk typically end in Cashmere?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cashmere typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cashmere?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cashmere typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cashmere?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cashmere sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 18, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cashmere?
The federal record around Cashmere is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (173), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cashmere?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cashmere's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cashmere'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 Cashmere’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cashmere's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 770 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cashmere's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cashmere's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 1 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cashmere, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cashmere's boundary and the 770 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cashmere sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cashmere's 770 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chelan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chelan 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 Chelan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cashmere's 770 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cashmere you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 770 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 Cashmere-wide figureread your own land →