Four Lakes, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Four Lakes, 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 Four Lakes 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 Four Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Four Lakes — the short answer
Four Lakes, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Four Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Four Lakes's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Four Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Four Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFour Lakes runs about 194 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
MeasuredFour Lakes 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 Four Lakes is in
Four Lakes sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Four Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spokane County.
What Grows in Four Lakes
Every plant below cleared Four Lakes's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Four Lakes?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Four Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Four Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOUR LAKES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 24N/41E-23K01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- GOODRICH CORPORATION CARBON PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GOODRICH CORPORATION CARBON PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- CUMMINS NORTHWEST LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 24N/41E-11N02Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- WIL-HUNT LIMITED PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ACE HARDWARE AERO RDBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- COSTCO LOGISTICS SPOKANE MDO 4007Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- TFORCE FREIGHT - SPOKANEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- PETRO STOPPING CENTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- UNITY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Four Lakes'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 Four Lakes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Four Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Four Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Four Lakes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Four Lakes — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (221 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Four Lakes
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 Four Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Four Lakes
Everything above resolves to Four Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Four Lakes Average
Four Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Four Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Four Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Four Lakes's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Four Lakes's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Four Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Four Lakes, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Four Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Four Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Four Lakes average
How we know this about Four Lakes
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 Four Lakes’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 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 Four Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Four Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Four Lakes typically lands around Apr 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Four Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Four Lakes typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Four Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Four Lakes sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Four Lakes?
The federal record around Four Lakes is a meaningful one — 357 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (221), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Four Lakes?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Four Lakes's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Four Lakes'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 Four Lakes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Four Lakes's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,977 acres it covers and 357 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Four Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Four Lakes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 26 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 357 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Four Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Four Lakes's boundary and the 1,977 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Four Lakes's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Four Lakes's 1,977 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spokane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spokane 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 Spokane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Four Lakes's 1,977 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Four Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,977 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Four Lakes-wide figureread your own land →