Chelan, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Chelan, 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 Chelan 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 Chelan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chelan — the short answer
Chelan, Washington: USDA zone 7b, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 7b is Chelan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chelan's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chelan
Each reading below is measured for Chelan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChelan runs about 244 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
MeasuredChelan sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Chelan is in
Chelan sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Chelan'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 Chelan
Every plant below cleared Chelan's own zone 7b and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chelan?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Chelan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chelan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHELAN SHELL FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SAFEWAY FUEL 3265Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- US FOREST SERVICE CHELAN RANGER DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CHELAN CENTRAL OFFICE (4070-B01)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHELAN VALLEY MIRROR PUBLISHING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 76 MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHELAN CHEVRONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CHELAN CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MACS TIRE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CHELAN SELF SERVE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHELAN SEWER PUMP STATION NO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CHELAN ANTENNA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chelan'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 Chelan.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chelan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chelan, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Chelan. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Chelan
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 Chelan average
Your land is one point inside Chelan
Everything above resolves to Chelan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Chelan Average
Chelan Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Chelan
- ●One soil character for all of Chelan
- ●Frost dates read at Chelan's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chelan's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chelan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chelan, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chelan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chelan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chelan average
How we know this about Chelan
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 Chelan’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 Chelan
When does frost risk typically end in Chelan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chelan typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Chelan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chelan typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chelan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chelan sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 29, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chelan?
The federal record around Chelan shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Chelan?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chelan's scale — its 7b band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chelan'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 Chelan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chelan's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,290 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chelan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chelan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 12 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chelan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chelan's boundary and the 4,290 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chelan 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 Chelan's 4,290 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 Chelan's 4,290 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chelan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,290 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Chelan-wide figureread your own land →