Cougar, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Cougar, 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 Cougar 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 Cougar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cougar — the short answer
Cougar, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 371 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 371 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 8b is Cougar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cougar's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cougar
Each reading below is measured for Cougar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCougar runs about 261 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCougar 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 Cougar is in
Cougar sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cougar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cowlitz County.
What Grows in Cougar
Every plant below cleared Cougar's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cougar?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Cougar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cougar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COWLITZ SKAMANIA FIRE DISTRICT 7Brownfields · 600 ft
- COUGAR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LAKESIDE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EAGLE'S CLIFF GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- COUGAR MOUNTAIN MWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ELIZABETH R REESEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- SWIFT HYDROELECTRIC PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- PACIFICORP HYDRO RESOURCES SWIFT HYDROELBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- YALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Golden WonderMining · 5.9 mi
- PACIFICORP HYDRORESOURCES YALEBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- SPEELYAI BAY FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cougar'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 Cougar.
Total Sites
24
within ~10 miles of Cougar
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cougar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cougar
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Cougar
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 Cougar average
Your land is one point inside Cougar
Everything above resolves to Cougar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 371 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 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 Cougar Average
Cougar Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cougar
- ●One soil character for all of Cougar
- ●Frost dates read at Cougar's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cougar's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cougar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cougar, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cougar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cougar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cougar average
How we know this about Cougar
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 Cougar’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 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 Cougar
When does frost risk typically end in Cougar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cougar typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Cougar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cougar typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cougar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cougar sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 10, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cougar?
The federal record around Cougar is light — 24 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cougar?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cougar's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cougar'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 Cougar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cougar's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 371 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cougar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cougar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 24 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cougar, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cougar's boundary and the 371 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cougar's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cougar's 371 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cowlitz County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cowlitz 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 Cowlitz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cougar's 371 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cougar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 371 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Cougar-wide figureread your own land →