Hoodsport, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hoodsport, 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 Hoodsport 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 Hoodsport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hoodsport — the short answer
Hoodsport, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 675 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 675 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 8b is Hoodsport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hoodsport's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hoodsport
Each reading below is measured for Hoodsport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoodsport runs about 243 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredHoodsport 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 Hoodsport is in
Hoodsport sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Hoodsport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Hoodsport
Every plant below cleared Hoodsport's own zone 8b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hoodsport?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Hoodsport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hoodsport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASON COUNTY PUD 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BOBS AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HOODSPORT CDO 070127Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- OFFSHORE MARINA AND FISH CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ROBERT VELKOVUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOODSPORT RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOOD CANAL OUTFITTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WA DFW HOOD CANAL SALMON HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WA DOT HOODSPORT ROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TACOMA POWER NORTH FORK SKOKOMISH HATCHERYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- REST AWHILE R V PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- LAKE CUSHMAN RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hoodsport'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 Hoodsport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hoodsport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hoodsport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hoodsport, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Hoodsport. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hoodsport
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 Hoodsport average
Your land is one point inside Hoodsport
Everything above resolves to Hoodsport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 675 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 Hoodsport Average
Hoodsport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hoodsport
- ●One soil character for all of Hoodsport
- ●Frost dates read at Hoodsport's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hoodsport's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hoodsport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hoodsport, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hoodsport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hoodsport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hoodsport average
How we know this about Hoodsport
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 Hoodsport’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 Hoodsport
When does frost risk typically end in Hoodsport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hoodsport typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Hoodsport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hoodsport 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 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hoodsport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hoodsport sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 4, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hoodsport?
The federal record around Hoodsport shows 104 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Hoodsport?
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 Hoodsport's scale — its 8b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hoodsport'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 Hoodsport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hoodsport's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 675 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hoodsport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hoodsport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 18 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hoodsport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hoodsport's boundary and the 675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hoodsport's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hoodsport's 675 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hoodsport's 675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hoodsport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Hoodsport-wide figureread your own land →