Ellensburg, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ellensburg, 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 Ellensburg 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 Ellensburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ellensburg — the short answer
Ellensburg, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 6b is Ellensburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellensburg's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellensburg
Each reading below is measured for Ellensburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllensburg runs about 182 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
MeasuredEllensburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Ellensburg is in
Ellensburg sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ellensburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kittitas County.
What Grows in Ellensburg
Every plant below cleared Ellensburg's own zone 6b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellensburg?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Ellensburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellensburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNIVERSITY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- AMOCO 0480Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CENTRAL SHELL RH BOWLES CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 2307-23579BUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CHEVRON 95012Brownfields · 550 ft
- MAID O'CLOVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- UNIVERSITY AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 021044Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CHEVRON 95012Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WYMER MICROWAVE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KENS TEXACO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellensburg'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 Ellensburg.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Ellensburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellensburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellensburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellensburg, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 105 sites within ~10 miles of Ellensburg. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ellensburg
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 Ellensburg average
Your land is one point inside Ellensburg
Everything above resolves to Ellensburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 city 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 Ellensburg Average
Ellensburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ellensburg
- ●One soil character for all of Ellensburg
- ●Frost dates read at Ellensburg's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellensburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellensburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellensburg, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellensburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellensburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellensburg average
How we know this about Ellensburg
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ellensburg’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ellensburg
When does frost risk typically end in Ellensburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellensburg typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ellensburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellensburg typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellensburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellensburg sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellensburg?
The federal record around Ellensburg shows 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ellensburg?
From about Sep 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 Oct 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ellensburg's scale — its 6b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellensburg'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 Ellensburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ellensburg's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,553 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellensburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellensburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellensburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellensburg's boundary and the 5,553 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ellensburg's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ellensburg's 5,553 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kittitas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kittitas 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 Kittitas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellensburg's 5,553 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellensburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,553 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 Ellensburg-wide figureread your own land →
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