Crocker, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Crocker, 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 Crocker 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 Crocker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crocker — the short answer
Crocker, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- 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
- ~271
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 8b is Crocker's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crocker's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crocker
Each reading below is measured for Crocker itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrocker runs about 271 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
MeasuredCrocker 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 Crocker is in
Crocker sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Crocker's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Crocker
Every plant below cleared Crocker's own zone 8b and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crocker?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (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 Crocker
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crocker. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SQUARE D COMPANY NELCO PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- HOBART BAKERY SYSTEMS ORTINGToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- BAXTER MANUFACTURINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 18N/05E-09H04 SU-021Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- ORTING CITY OFPFAS · 3.0 mi
- 19N/05E-32J01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- L & M RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ORTING FEED & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ORTING CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- JOHNS ORTING TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ORTING B530590/ORNGWAQ2260Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ARNOLD'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crocker'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 Crocker.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crocker
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crocker
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crocker, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crocker — PFAS (8 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Crocker
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 Crocker average
Your land is one point inside Crocker
Everything above resolves to Crocker 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 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 Crocker Average
Crocker Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Crocker
- ●One soil character for all of Crocker
- ●Frost dates read at Crocker's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crocker's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crocker
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crocker, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crocker averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crocker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crocker average
How we know this about Crocker
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 Crocker’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 Crocker
When does frost risk typically end in Crocker?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crocker typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Crocker?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crocker 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 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crocker?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crocker sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 10, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crocker?
The federal record around Crocker is a meaningful one — 378 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (223), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Crocker?
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 Crocker's scale — its 8b band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crocker'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 Crocker’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crocker's own scale — its own ~271-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,572 acres it covers and 378 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crocker's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crocker's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 26 and Nov 24 and the ~271-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crocker, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crocker's boundary and the 4,572 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crocker sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crocker's 4,572 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crocker's 4,572 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crocker you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,572 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Crocker-wide figureread your own land →
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