Enumclaw, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Enumclaw, 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 Enumclaw 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 Enumclaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Enumclaw — the short answer
Enumclaw, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- 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
- ~278
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Enumclaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Enumclaw's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Enumclaw
Each reading below is measured for Enumclaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEnumclaw runs about 278 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
MeasuredEnumclaw 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 Enumclaw is in
Enumclaw sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Enumclaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Enumclaw
Every plant below cleared Enumclaw's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Enumclaw?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Enumclaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Enumclaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GATEWAY FEED CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- CHEVRON 97001Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- JOHN KOCHEVAR & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ENUMCLAW CO 070104Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NORTHWEST CAPITAL INVESTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WALGREENS 7136Brownfields · 800 ft
- QUALITY FOOD CENTERS QFC FUEL STOP 863Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- QFC 863 705Brownfields · 1000 ft
- STANLEY PATRICK STRIPING COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MOULDEN & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RAVEN'S ROOST MICROWAVE REPEATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GARRETT OF ENUMCLAWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Enumclaw'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 Enumclaw.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of Enumclaw
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Enumclaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Enumclaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Enumclaw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Enumclaw — CAFO (8 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Enumclaw
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 Enumclaw average
Your land is one point inside Enumclaw
Everything above resolves to Enumclaw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Enumclaw Average
Enumclaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Enumclaw
- ●One soil character for all of Enumclaw
- ●Frost dates read at Enumclaw's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Enumclaw's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Enumclaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Enumclaw, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Enumclaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Enumclaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Enumclaw average
How we know this about Enumclaw
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 Enumclaw’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 Enumclaw
When does frost risk typically end in Enumclaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Enumclaw typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 12.
When is the first frost in Enumclaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Enumclaw 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 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Enumclaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Enumclaw sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 10, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Enumclaw?
The federal record around Enumclaw is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Enumclaw?
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 Enumclaw's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Enumclaw'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 Enumclaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Enumclaw's own scale — its own ~278-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,315 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Enumclaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Enumclaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 19 and Nov 24 and the ~278-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Enumclaw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Enumclaw's boundary and the 3,315 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Enumclaw's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Enumclaw's 3,315 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Enumclaw's 3,315 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Enumclaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,315 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 Enumclaw-wide figureread your own land →
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