Dallesport, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Dallesport, 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 Dallesport 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 Dallesport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dallesport — the short answer
Dallesport, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 8a is Dallesport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dallesport's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Dallesport's own 30-year record measures about 243 days between 28°F killing freezes — 75 days longer than Klickitat County's ~168. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Dallesport's ~243-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dallesport
Each reading below is measured for Dallesport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDallesport runs about 243 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
MeasuredDallesport 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 Dallesport is in
Dallesport sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Dallesport's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Klickitat County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dallesport
Every plant below cleared Dallesport's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dallesport?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Dallesport
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dallesport checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 547 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dallesport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dallesport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CA COLLINS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SPRINT NWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DALLESPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DALLESPORT TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF THE DALLES OREGONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DLS VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZTDLBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 02N/13E-33R01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- DESIGN LLCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- SKY'S CLLISN RPR INC DBA FIX AUTO THE DABrownfields · 1.7 mi
- HOOD RIVER SAND, GRAVEL & READY MIX - THE DALLESToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- IMPACT ALLOYS FOUNDRYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dallesport'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 Dallesport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dallesport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dallesport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dallesport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dallesport — Superfund (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (107 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dallesport
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 Dallesport average
Your land is one point inside Dallesport
Everything above resolves to Dallesport as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Dallesport Average
Dallesport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dallesport
- ●One soil character for all of Dallesport
- ●Frost dates read at Dallesport's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dallesport's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dallesport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dallesport, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dallesport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dallesport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dallesport average
How we know this about Dallesport
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 Dallesport’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 Dallesport
When does frost risk typically end in Dallesport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dallesport typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Dallesport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dallesport typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dallesport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dallesport sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Oct 27, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dallesport?
The federal record around Dallesport is a meaningful one — 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Dallesport?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dallesport's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dallesport'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 Dallesport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dallesport's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,309 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dallesport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dallesport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 10 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dallesport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dallesport's boundary and the 4,309 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dallesport sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dallesport checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dallesport's 4,309 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Klickitat County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Klickitat 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 Klickitat County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dallesport's 4,309 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dallesport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,309 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Dallesport-wide figureread your own land →
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