Herron Island, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Herron Island, 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 Herron Island 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 Herron Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Herron Island — the short answer
Herron Island, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 305 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 305 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 Pierce County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Herron Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Herron Island's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Herron Island
Each reading below is measured for Herron Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHerron Island runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pierce County, the closest normal to Herron Island) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHerron Island 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 Herron Island is in
Herron Island sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Herron Island's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Herron Island
Every plant below cleared Herron Island's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Herron Island?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Herron Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Herron Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARTSTENE POINT MAINTENANCE ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATION CAMP GALLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- JARRELL COVE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- JARRELL'S COVE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- KIM & SM J / HOME SHELL FOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 20N/01W-11C01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- LAKEBAY CAFE AT LAKEBAY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- JOHNSON BULLDOZING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- GRAPEVIEW COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- FAIR HARBOR MARINE AND RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- LONGBRANCH MERCANTILE K ALAN CARLSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- EMERALD LAKEPFAS · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Herron Island'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 Herron Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Herron Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Herron Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Herron Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Herron Island — Nitrate (28 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Herron Island
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 Herron Island average
Your land is one point inside Herron Island
Everything above resolves to Herron Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 305 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pierce 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 Herron Island Average
Herron Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Herron Island
- ●One soil character for all of Herron Island
- ●Frost dates read at Herron Island's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Herron Island's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Herron Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Herron Island, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Herron Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Herron Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Herron Island average
How we know this about Herron Island
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 Pierce 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 Herron Island
When does frost risk typically end in Herron Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Herron Island typically lands around Mar 4, 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 Mar 25.
When is the first frost in Herron Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Herron Island typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Herron Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Herron Island sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 9, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Herron Island?
The federal record around Herron Island shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Herron Island?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Herron Island's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Herron Island'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 Herron Island’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Herron Island's own scale — the 305 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Herron Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Herron Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Herron Island's boundary and the 305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Herron Island sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Herron Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pierce County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Herron Island's 305 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Herron Island's 305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Herron Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 305 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Herron Island-wide figureread your own land →
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