Lake Forest Park, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Forest Park, 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 Lake Forest Park 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 Lake Forest Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Forest Park — the short answer
Lake Forest Park, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 King County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lake Forest Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Forest Park's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Forest Park
Each reading below is measured for Lake Forest Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Forest Park runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Lake Forest Park) — 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
MeasuredLake Forest Park 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 Lake Forest Park is in
Lake Forest Park sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Lake Forest Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Lake Forest Park
Plants matched to Lake Forest Park'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 Lake Forest Park?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Lake Forest Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Forest Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BALLINGER AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BALLINGER AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- North City Water DistrictPFAS · 0.5 mi
- LAKE FOREST PARK WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 0.5 mi
- NORTHSHORE UTILITY DISTRICTPFAS · 0.5 mi
- LAKE FOREST PARK CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LAKE FOREST CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHEVRON 93987Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ARCO 5242 STRASBURGER CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RITE AID 5225Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- TOWN CENTER AT LAKE FOREST PARKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BRUGGERS BOGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Forest Park'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 Lake Forest Park.
Total Sites
2,477
within ~10 miles of Lake Forest Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Forest Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Forest Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Forest Park, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,596 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Forest Park. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Forest Park
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 Lake Forest Park average
Your land is one point inside Lake Forest Park
Everything above resolves to Lake Forest Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King 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 Lake Forest Park Average
Lake Forest Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lake Forest Park
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Forest Park
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Forest Park's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Forest Park's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Forest Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Forest Park, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Forest Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Forest Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Forest Park average
How we know this about Lake Forest Park
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 King 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 Lake Forest Park
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Forest Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Forest Park typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Lake Forest Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Forest Park typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Forest Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Forest Park sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Forest Park?
The federal record around Lake Forest Park is a meaningful one — 2,477 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,596), 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 Lake Forest Park?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Forest Park's scale — its 9a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Forest Park'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 Lake Forest Park’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Lake Forest Park's own scale — the 2,251 acres it covers and 2,477 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Forest Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,477 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Forest Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Forest Park's boundary and the 2,251 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Lake Forest Park's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Forest Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom King County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Forest Park's 2,251 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King 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 King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Forest Park's 2,251 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Forest Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,251 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 Lake Forest Park-wide figureread your own land →
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