Colville, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Colville, 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 Colville 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 Colville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Colville — the short answer
Colville, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 6b is Colville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colville's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Colville
Each reading below is measured for Colville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColville runs about 184 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredColville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Colville is in
Colville sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Colville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stevens County.
What Grows in Colville
Every plant below cleared Colville's own zone 6b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Colville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Colville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Colville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLVILLE CO 070071Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COLVILLE SOC 070630Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BOLTS 395 LIGHTNING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COURTHOUSE PARKINGLOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PANORAMA WOOD PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RONS STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE 385Brownfields · 1900 ft
- COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COLVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BRANDING IRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MARV CARTER MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- COLVILLE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colville'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 Colville.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Colville
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Colville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Colville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Colville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Colville — Mining (56 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Colville
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 Colville average
Your land is one point inside Colville
Everything above resolves to Colville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Colville Average
Colville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Colville
- ●One soil character for all of Colville
- ●Frost dates read at Colville's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Colville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colville, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colville average
How we know this about Colville
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 Colville’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 Colville
When does frost risk typically end in Colville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colville typically lands around Apr 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 May 7.
When is the first frost in Colville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Colville typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Colville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colville sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 3, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colville?
The federal record around Colville runs heavier than most — 144 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Colville?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Colville's scale — its 6b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colville'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 Colville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Colville's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,976 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 17 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Colville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Colville's boundary and the 1,976 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Colville's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Colville's 1,976 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stevens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stevens 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 Stevens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colville's 1,976 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Colville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,976 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Colville-wide figureread your own land →