Lake Holm, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Holm, 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 Holm 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 Holm — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Holm — the short answer
Lake Holm, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- 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
- Town area
- 5K 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 8b is Lake Holm's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Holm'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 Holm
Each reading below is measured for Lake Holm itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Holm runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Lake Holm) — 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 Holm 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 Lake Holm is in
Lake Holm sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Lake Holm's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Lake Holm
Every plant below cleared Lake Holm's own zone 8b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Holm?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Lake Holm
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Holm. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21N/05E-14E01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 21N/05E-14D01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- KING CNTY FIRE DIST 44Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- KING COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT 44Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PLAYTIME ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Auburn City ofPFAS · 1.1 mi
- Lake Meridian Water DistrictPFAS · 1.1 mi
- COVINGTON WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1.1 mi
- KENT WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 1.1 mi
- 21N/05E-12L02 SU-020Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- BROOKSIDE DELI & GAS 619Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WA DFW AUBURN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Holm'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 Holm.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Holm
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Holm
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Holm, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Holm — PFAS (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (82 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Holm
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 Holm average
Your land is one point inside Lake Holm
Everything above resolves to Lake Holm as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King 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 Lake Holm Average
Lake Holm Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lake Holm
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Holm
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Holm's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Holm's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Holm
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Holm, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Holm averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Holm — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Holm average
How we know this about Lake Holm
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 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 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 Lake Holm
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Holm?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Holm 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 Holm?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Holm 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 Holm?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Holm 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 Holm?
The federal record around Lake Holm runs heavier than most — 1,333 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (771), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake Holm?
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 Holm's scale — its 8b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Holm'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 Holm’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lake Holm's own scale — the 5,351 acres it covers and 1,333 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Holm's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,333 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Holm, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Holm's boundary and the 5,351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Holm's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Holm 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 Holm's 5,351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King County
- 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 Holm's 5,351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Holm you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,351 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Lake Holm-wide figureread your own land →
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