Forks, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Forks, 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 Forks 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 Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Forks — the short answer
Forks, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Clallam County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Clallam County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Clallam County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Clallam County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Forks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forks's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forks
Each reading below is measured for Forks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsForks runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Clallam County, the closest normal to Forks) — 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
MeasuredForks sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Forks is in
Forks sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Forks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clallam County.
What Grows in Forks
Every plant below cleared Forks's own zone 9a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forks?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Forks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPOELSTRA LOGGING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- EVERGREEN 76 SUBWAY 17796Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SPOELSTRA BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RON'S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GALES VIDEO & BP GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORKS SAND AND GRAVEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TESORO-408Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WILLIAM BAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FORKS COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PACIFIC TELECOMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- QUILLAYUTE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT 402Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OLYMPIC REGION HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forks'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 Forks.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Forks
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forks, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Forks. 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 Forks
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 Forks average
Your land is one point inside Forks
Everything above resolves to Forks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clallam County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Forks Average
Forks Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Forks
- ●One soil character for all of Forks
- ●Frost dates read at Forks's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forks's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forks, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forks average
How we know this about Forks
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 Clallam 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 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 Forks
When does frost risk typically end in Forks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forks typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Forks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forks typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forks sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forks?
The federal record around Forks is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Forks?
From about Oct 19 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 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 Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forks's scale — its 9a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forks'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 Forks’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Forks's own scale — the 2,649 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forks's boundary and the 2,649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forks's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Forks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clallam County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forks's 2,649 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clallam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clallam 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 Clallam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forks's 2,649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,649 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Forks-wide figureread your own land →