Ilwaco, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ilwaco, 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 Ilwaco 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 Ilwaco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ilwaco — the short answer
Ilwaco, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Pacific County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ilwaco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ilwaco's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ilwaco
Each reading below is measured for Ilwaco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIlwaco runs about 207 days between hard freezes (read from Pacific County, the closest normal to Ilwaco) — 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
MeasuredIlwaco 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 Ilwaco is in
Ilwaco sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Ilwaco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pacific County.
What Grows in Ilwaco
Plants matched to Ilwaco's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ilwaco?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Ilwaco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ilwaco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ILWACO PORT OF LYLES CANNERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ILWACO FIRE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ANDYS SALMON CHARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ILWACO MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILCOX & FLEGEL MARINE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PACIFIC FUEL DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ILWACO OPERATIONS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ILWACO CITY DOWNTOWN RENOVATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ILWACO CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ILWACO PUD 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ilwaco'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 Ilwaco.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Ilwaco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ilwaco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ilwaco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ilwaco, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ilwaco — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ilwaco
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 Ilwaco average
Your land is one point inside Ilwaco
Everything above resolves to Ilwaco as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pacific 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 Ilwaco Average
Ilwaco Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ilwaco
- ●One soil character for all of Ilwaco
- ●Frost dates read at Ilwaco's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ilwaco's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ilwaco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ilwaco, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ilwaco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ilwaco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ilwaco average
How we know this about Ilwaco
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 Pacific 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 Ilwaco
When does frost risk typically end in Ilwaco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ilwaco typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Ilwaco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ilwaco typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ilwaco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ilwaco sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ilwaco?
The federal record around Ilwaco is a meaningful one — 92 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Ilwaco?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ilwaco's scale — its 9a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ilwaco'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 Ilwaco’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Ilwaco's own scale — the 1,312 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ilwaco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ilwaco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ilwaco's boundary and the 1,312 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Ilwaco's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ilwaco has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pacific County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ilwaco's 1,312 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pacific County
- The candidate plant list — Washington's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Washington
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pacific 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 Pacific County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ilwaco's 1,312 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ilwaco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,312 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Ilwaco-wide figureread your own land →
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