Ephrata, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ephrata, 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 Ephrata 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 Ephrata — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ephrata — the short answer
Ephrata, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 7a is Ephrata's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ephrata's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ephrata
Each reading below is measured for Ephrata itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEphrata runs about 211 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
MeasuredEphrata sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Ephrata is in
Ephrata sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ephrata's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Ephrata
Every plant below cleared Ephrata's own zone 7a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ephrata?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Ephrata
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ephrata. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRANT COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PORT DISTRICT NO 9 OF GRANT COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD OMS 2Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- ST ROSE OF LIMA CATHOLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CENEX MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- USA PETROLEUM #62046Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GRANT COUNTY PUD NO 2 EPHRATABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- US DOI BORBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ODESSA UNION WAREHOUSE CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 21N/26E-15E01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- ORGANIZATIONAL MAINTENANCE SHOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CENTER 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ephrata'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 Ephrata.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Ephrata
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ephrata
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ephrata
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ephrata, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Ephrata. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ephrata
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 Ephrata average
Your land is one point inside Ephrata
Everything above resolves to Ephrata as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Ephrata Average
Ephrata Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ephrata
- ●One soil character for all of Ephrata
- ●Frost dates read at Ephrata's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ephrata's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ephrata
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ephrata, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ephrata averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ephrata — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ephrata average
How we know this about Ephrata
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 Ephrata’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 Ephrata
When does frost risk typically end in Ephrata?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ephrata typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Ephrata?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ephrata typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ephrata?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ephrata sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 15, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ephrata?
The federal record around Ephrata is a meaningful one — 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ephrata?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ephrata's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ephrata'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 Ephrata’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ephrata's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,707 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ephrata's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ephrata's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 29 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ephrata, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ephrata's boundary and the 6,707 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ephrata's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ephrata's 6,707 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ephrata's 6,707 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ephrata you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,707 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 Ephrata-wide figureread your own land →
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