Connell, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Connell, 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 Connell 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 Connell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Connell — the short answer
Connell, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Connell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Connell's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Connell
Each reading below is measured for Connell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConnell runs about 222 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
MeasuredConnell 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 Connell is in
Connell sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Connell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Connell
Every plant below cleared Connell's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Connell?
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 Oct 31 — 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 Connell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Connell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONNELL MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CONNELL CITY OFPFAS · 0.6 mi
- 14N/32E-31D02 SU24Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 14N/32E-31D01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- CONNELL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WA DOC COYOTE RIDGE CORRECTIONS CTRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- UNOCAL CONNELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CONNELL SAND AND GRAVELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 14N/31E-36J02Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- WELCH BROS CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CONNELL GAS & FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CONNELL WA LINE SEG 46 PRINT 374Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Connell'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 Connell.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Connell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Connell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Connell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Connell, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Connell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Connell
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 Connell average
Your land is one point inside Connell
Everything above resolves to Connell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Connell Average
Connell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Connell
- ●One soil character for all of Connell
- ●Frost dates read at Connell's scale: Mar 23 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Connell's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Connell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Connell, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Connell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Connell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Connell average
How we know this about Connell
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 Connell’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 Connell
When does frost risk typically end in Connell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Connell 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 Connell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Connell typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Connell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Connell sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 17, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Connell?
The federal record around Connell is a meaningful one — 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Connell?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Connell's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Connell'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 Connell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Connell's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,762 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Connell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Connell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Oct 31 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Connell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Connell's boundary and the 4,762 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Connell's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Connell's 4,762 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Connell's 4,762 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Connell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,762 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 Connell-wide figureread your own land →
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