Garfield, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Garfield, 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 Garfield 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 Garfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garfield — the short answer
Garfield, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 602 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 602 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 Garfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garfield's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garfield
Each reading below is measured for Garfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarfield runs about 181 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
MeasuredGarfield 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 Garfield is in
Garfield sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Garfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whitman County.
What Grows in Garfield
Every plant below cleared Garfield's own zone 6b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garfield?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Garfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT 302Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PALOUSE PRODUCERS INC GARFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KEENEYS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PALOUSE CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CHARLES A ARLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UPRR FARMINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 18N/45E-33D22 PAS30Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MCGREGOR CO GARFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GARFIELD STORAGE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GARFIELD SECTION TOOL HOUSE AND DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BUSY B FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 17N/45E-06E01 LE19Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garfield'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 Garfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Garfield — Underground Storage Tanks (59 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Garfield
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 Garfield average
Your land is one point inside Garfield
Everything above resolves to Garfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 602 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 Garfield Average
Garfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Garfield
- ●One soil character for all of Garfield
- ●Frost dates read at Garfield's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garfield's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garfield, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garfield average
How we know this about Garfield
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 Garfield’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 Garfield
When does frost risk typically end in Garfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garfield typically lands around Apr 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Garfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garfield typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garfield sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 3, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garfield?
The federal record around Garfield shows 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Garfield?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garfield's scale — its 6b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garfield'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 Garfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Garfield's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 602 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 17 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garfield's boundary and the 602 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garfield's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garfield's 602 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whitman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whitman 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 Whitman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garfield's 602 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 602 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 Garfield-wide figureread your own land →
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