Pacific County, in Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Pacific County lies within the Pacific Northwest — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Pacific County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pacific County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Pacific County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pacific County — the short answer
Pacific County, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 597K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 597K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 8a is Pacific County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pacific County's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Pacific County
Across a year, Pacific County accumulates about 972 growing degree days above 50°F, about 741 fewer than the middle Washington county — ahead of 4 of Washington’s 39 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Pacific County
Across Pacific County, the ground is predominantly Andisols, where Hoquiam, Elochoman, and Lytell are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a medial silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Andisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pacific County
The USDA soil survey maps 78% of Pacific County as well drained — but another 18% drains differently: 8% moderately well drained, 4% poorly drained.
Hoquiam is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Elochoman (7%) and Lytell (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Pacific County
Each reading below is measured for Pacific County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Pacific County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Pacific County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredPacific County runs about 207 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
MeasuredPacific County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Pacific County is in
Pacific County sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Pacific County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pacific County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 207-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile.
Is it too late to plant in Pacific County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Pacific County
USGS estimates 923 lb of Glyphosate on Pacific County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (493 lb) and Triclopyr (340 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Pacific County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pacific County — 226 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Pacific County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Pacific County
Closest first, across Pacific County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Raymond Water DepartmentPFAS · 2.9 mi
- COAST OYSTER CO TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- DUN PAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WA DFW NEMAH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Hermens ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- KENNETH L HORTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- SOUTH BEND SCOOL DISTRICT NO 118Underground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- FOODMART #3890Underground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- QUICK STOP GROCERY/THE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- PACIFIC COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- CITY SHOPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- WILLAPA VALLEY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pacific County'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 Pacific County.
Total Sites
226
across Pacific County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Pacific County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pacific County, two things run higher than the national average across Pacific County — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (112 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pacific County
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 Pacific County average
Your land is one point inside Pacific County
Everything above resolves to Pacific County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 597K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Pacific County Average
Pacific County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pacific County
- ●One soil character for all of Pacific County
- ●Frost dates read at Pacific County's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pacific County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pacific County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pacific County, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pacific County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pacific County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pacific County average
How we know this about Pacific County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Pacific County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pacific County
When does frost risk typically end in Pacific County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Pacific County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pacific County sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pacific County?
The federal record around Pacific County is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (112), the nearest PFAS record about 2.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Pacific County's scale — its 8a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pacific County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Washington's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Pacific County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Pacific County's own scale — its own ~207-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 226 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pacific County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pacific County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pacific CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 226 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pacific County's boundary and the 597,359 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pacific County sitting wholly inside the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pacific County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Pacific County — the ~207 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pacific County's 597,359 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 226 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Pacific Countyread your own land →