Cusick, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cusick, 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 Cusick 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 Cusick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cusick — the short answer
Cusick, Washington: USDA zone 6a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 325 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 325 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 6a is Cusick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cusick's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cusick
Each reading below is measured for Cusick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCusick runs about 173 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCusick sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Cusick is in
Cusick sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cusick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pend Oreille County.
What Grows in Cusick
Every plant below cleared Cusick's own zone 6a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cusick?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Cusick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cusick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUSICK CENTRAL OFFICE 4140-B1AUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CUSICK SCHOOL DISTRICT NO 59Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- R&R GASOLINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- USK GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ROAD MAINTENANCE SHOP NO 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 33N/44E-28Q01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 33N/44E-17P02Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 32N/44E-04C01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 33N/44E-17F01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- PONDERAY NEWSPRINT COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- PONDERAY NEWSPRINT COMPANYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 32N/44E-03G01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cusick'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 Cusick.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Cusick
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cusick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cusick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cusick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cusick — Mining (35 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cusick
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 Cusick average
Your land is one point inside Cusick
Everything above resolves to Cusick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 325 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 Cusick Average
Cusick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cusick
- ●One soil character for all of Cusick
- ●Frost dates read at Cusick's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cusick's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cusick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cusick, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cusick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cusick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cusick average
How we know this about Cusick
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 Cusick’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 Cusick
When does frost risk typically end in Cusick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cusick typically lands around Apr 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 May 14.
When is the first frost in Cusick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cusick typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cusick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cusick sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 29, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cusick?
The federal record around Cusick shows 68 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cusick?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cusick's scale — its 6a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cusick'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 Cusick’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cusick's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 325 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cusick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cusick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 13 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cusick, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cusick's boundary and the 325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cusick's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cusick's 325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pend Oreille County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pend Oreille 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 Pend Oreille County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cusick's 325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cusick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Cusick-wide figureread your own land →