Kendall, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kendall, 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 Kendall 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 Kendall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kendall — the short answer
Kendall, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- 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 8a is Kendall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kendall's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kendall
Each reading below is measured for Kendall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKendall runs about 257 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
MeasuredKendall sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Kendall is in
Kendall sits in the North Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kendall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whatcom County.
What Grows in Kendall
Every plant below cleared Kendall's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kendall?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Kendall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kendall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLACK MOUNTAIN RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STARVIN SAMS MINI MARKET 15Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ZEE BROS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PARK CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WA DFW KENDALL CREEK HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PAISANO PIZZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- FROSTY INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- YORKSTON OIL CO INC MAPLE FALLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAPLE FUELS WASH-A-TONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAPLE FALLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAPLE FALLS MAINT FACILITY SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kendall'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 Kendall.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kendall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kendall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kendall, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kendall — CAFO (23 sites) and Nitrate (104 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kendall
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 Kendall average
Your land is one point inside Kendall
Everything above resolves to Kendall 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 Kendall Average
Kendall Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kendall
- ●One soil character for all of Kendall
- ●Frost dates read at Kendall's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kendall's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kendall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kendall, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kendall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kendall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kendall average
How we know this about Kendall
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 Kendall’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 Kendall
When does frost risk typically end in Kendall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kendall typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Kendall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kendall typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kendall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kendall sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 5, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kendall?
The federal record around Kendall is a meaningful one — 211 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kendall?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kendall's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kendall'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 Kendall’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kendall's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,759 acres it covers and 211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kendall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kendall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 19 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kendall, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kendall's boundary and the 1,759 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kendall's own centroid, the North CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kendall's 1,759 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whatcom County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whatcom 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 Whatcom County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kendall's 1,759 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kendall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,759 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kendall-wide figureread your own land →
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