Fairwood, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairwood, 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 Fairwood 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 Fairwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairwood — the short answer
Fairwood, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 King County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Fairwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairwood's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairwood
Each reading below is measured for Fairwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFairwood runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Fairwood) — 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
MeasuredFairwood 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 Fairwood is in
Fairwood sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Fairwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Fairwood
Every plant below cleared Fairwood's own zone 8b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairwood?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Fairwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRWOOD GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KING COUNTY FIRE PROT DISTRICT 40Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TEXACO STATION 63-232-0180Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- THE MOORE ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ARCO AMPM FAIRWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #11668Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SAFEWAY 519Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- RITE AID 6455Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN CHEVRON 2307-20057TUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UNOCAL 6321Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WEST FUEL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOOS CREEK WATER & SEWER DISTRICTPFAS · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairwood'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 Fairwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairwood
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Fairwood
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 Fairwood average
Your land is one point inside Fairwood
Everything above resolves to Fairwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King 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 Fairwood Average
Fairwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Fairwood
- ●One soil character for all of Fairwood
- ●Frost dates read at Fairwood's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairwood, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairwood average
How we know this about Fairwood
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 King 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 Fairwood
When does frost risk typically end in Fairwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairwood typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Fairwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairwood typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairwood sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairwood?
The federal record around Fairwood runs heavier than most — 2,017 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,224), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fairwood?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairwood's scale — its 8b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairwood'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 Fairwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fairwood's own scale — the 3,036 acres it covers and 2,017 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,017 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairwood's boundary and the 3,036 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairwood's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fairwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom King County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairwood's 3,036 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 Fairwood's 3,036 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,036 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 Fairwood-wide figureread your own land →