Cowiche, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cowiche, 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 Cowiche 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 Cowiche — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cowiche — the short answer
Cowiche, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 531 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 531 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 Cowiche's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cowiche's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cowiche
Each reading below is measured for Cowiche itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCowiche runs about 204 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
MeasuredCowiche 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 Cowiche is in
Cowiche sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cowiche's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yakima County.
What Grows in Cowiche
Every plant below cleared Cowiche's own zone 7a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cowiche?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Cowiche
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cowiche. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EVANS FRUITUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- COLLINS COWICHE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HIGHLAND QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HIGHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT 203Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COWICHE PRO HOME CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCHWARTZE RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JULIE ANN BOSMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ESCHBACH PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SNOKIST TIETONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- KELLER FRUIT & COLD STORAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Mighty TietonUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- J & J WOOD PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cowiche'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 Cowiche.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cowiche
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cowiche
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cowiche, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cowiche — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (169 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cowiche
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 Cowiche average
Your land is one point inside Cowiche
Everything above resolves to Cowiche as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 531 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 Cowiche Average
Cowiche Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cowiche
- ●One soil character for all of Cowiche
- ●Frost dates read at Cowiche's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cowiche's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cowiche
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cowiche, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cowiche averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cowiche — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cowiche average
How we know this about Cowiche
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 Cowiche’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 Cowiche
When does frost risk typically end in Cowiche?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cowiche typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Cowiche?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cowiche typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cowiche?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cowiche sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 9, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cowiche?
The federal record around Cowiche is a meaningful one — 229 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cowiche?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cowiche's scale — its 7a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cowiche'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 Cowiche’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cowiche's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 531 acres it covers and 229 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cowiche's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cowiche's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 23 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 229 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cowiche, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cowiche's boundary and the 531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cowiche's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cowiche's 531 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yakima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yakima 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 Yakima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cowiche's 531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cowiche you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 531 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cowiche-wide figureread your own land →