Central Park, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Central 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 Central 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 Central Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Central Park — the short answer
Central Park, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Grays Harbor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- Grays Harbor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Grays Harbor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Grays Harbor County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Central Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Central Park's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Central Park
Each reading below is measured for Central Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCentral Park runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Grays Harbor County, the closest normal to Central 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
MeasuredCentral Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Central Park is in
Central Park sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Central Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grays Harbor County.
What Grows in Central Park
Every plant below cleared Central Park's own zone 8b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Central Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Central Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Central Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN 22762MUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHEVRON 95777Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LINKSHIRE MOBILE HOME PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TRIPLE S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ABERDEEN MAINTENANCE AREA SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- OLYMPIC CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SKOOKUM TRAILER PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WAYNE DOOLITTLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ORGANIZATIONAL MAINTENANCE SHOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CHARLES E EVERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ABERDEEN CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- COSMO SPECIALTY FIBERS INCSuperfund · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Central 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 Central Park.
Total Sites
257
within ~10 miles of Central Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Central Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Central Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Central Park, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 205 sites within ~10 miles of Central Park. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Central 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 Central Park average
Your land is one point inside Central Park
Everything above resolves to Central Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grays Harbor 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 Central Park Average
Central Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Central Park
- ●One soil character for all of Central Park
- ●Frost dates read at Central Park's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Central Park's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Central Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Central Park, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Central Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Central Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Central Park average
How we know this about Central 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 Grays Harbor 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 Central Park
When does frost risk typically end in Central Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Central Park typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Central Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Central Park typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Central Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Central Park sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 6, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Central Park?
The federal record around Central Park is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (205), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Central Park?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Central Park's scale — its 8b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Central 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 Central Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Central Park's own scale — the 2,252 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Central Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Central Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Central Park's boundary and the 2,252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Central Park's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Central Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grays Harbor County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Central Park's 2,252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grays Harbor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grays Harbor 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 Grays Harbor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Central Park's 2,252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Central 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 2,252 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Central Park-wide figureread your own land →