East Cathlamet, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Cathlamet, 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 East Cathlamet 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 East Cathlamet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Cathlamet — the short answer
East Cathlamet, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Wahkiakum County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Wahkiakum County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- Wahkiakum County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Wahkiakum County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is East Cathlamet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Cathlamet's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Cathlamet
Each reading below is measured for East Cathlamet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEast Cathlamet runs about 249 days between hard freezes (read from Wahkiakum County, the closest normal to East Cathlamet) — 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
MeasuredEast Cathlamet 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 East Cathlamet is in
East Cathlamet sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at East Cathlamet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wahkiakum County.
What Grows in East Cathlamet
Every plant below cleared East Cathlamet's own zone 8b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Cathlamet?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 East Cathlamet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Cathlamet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRAGG'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CATHLAMET CHEVRON AND RV PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WA DOT CATHLAMET MAINTENANCE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CATHLAMETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BANK OF PACIFIC PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WAHKIAKUM REFRIGERATION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 08N/06W-02G01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- TOWN OF CATHLAMET WTPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BRUSCO TUG AND BARGEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- ROAD DEPT SHOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 09N/05W-32C02Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Cathlamet'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 East Cathlamet.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of East Cathlamet
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Cathlamet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Cathlamet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Cathlamet, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Cathlamet — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in East Cathlamet
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 East Cathlamet average
Your land is one point inside East Cathlamet
Everything above resolves to East Cathlamet as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wahkiakum County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 East Cathlamet Average
East Cathlamet Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across East Cathlamet
- ●One soil character for all of East Cathlamet
- ●Frost dates read at East Cathlamet's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Cathlamet's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Cathlamet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Cathlamet, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Cathlamet averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Cathlamet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Cathlamet average
How we know this about East Cathlamet
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 Wahkiakum County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 East Cathlamet
When does frost risk typically end in East Cathlamet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Cathlamet typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in East Cathlamet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Cathlamet typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Cathlamet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Cathlamet sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 3, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Cathlamet?
The federal record around East Cathlamet shows 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 East Cathlamet?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Cathlamet's scale — its 8b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Cathlamet'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 East Cathlamet’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at East Cathlamet's own scale — the 1,094 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Cathlamet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Cathlamet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Cathlamet's boundary and the 1,094 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Cathlamet's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — East Cathlamet has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wahkiakum County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Cathlamet's 1,094 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wahkiakum County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wahkiakum 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 Wahkiakum County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Cathlamet's 1,094 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Cathlamet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,094 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 East Cathlamet-wide figureread your own land →