Lake Shore, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Lake Shore, 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 Shore 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 Shore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Shore — the short answer
Lake Shore, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Clark County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lake Shore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Shore's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Shore
Each reading below is measured for Lake Shore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Shore runs about 217 days between hard freezes (read from Clark County, the closest normal to Lake Shore) — 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 Shore 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 Shore is in
Lake Shore sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Lake Shore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Lake Shore
Every plant below cleared Lake Shore's own zone 8b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Shore?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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.
Documented around Lake Shore
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lake Shore checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 549 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Shore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Shore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03N/01E-33Q01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- COLUMBIA RIVER HS FIELD IMPROVEMENTSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HAWTHORNE HYDROPONICSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HOP-N-SHOP FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 17003Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- AM/PM # 82746Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- B&B COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DYNES TRUCKING LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- TARGET STORE 1883Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- STATION 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HAZEL DELL SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 02N/01E-09G02Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Shore'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 Shore.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Shore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Shore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Shore, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Shore — Superfund (39 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (175 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Shore
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 Shore average
Your land is one point inside Lake Shore
Everything above resolves to Lake Shore as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clark 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 Shore Average
Lake Shore Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lake Shore
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Shore
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Shore's scale: Mar 28 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Shore's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Shore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Shore, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Shore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Shore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Shore average
How we know this about Lake Shore
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 Clark 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 Shore
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Shore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Shore typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Lake Shore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Shore typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Shore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Shore sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 17, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Shore?
The federal record around Lake Shore runs heavier than most — 1,960 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,060), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Shore?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Shore's scale — its 8b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Shore'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 Shore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Shore's own scale — the 1,046 acres it covers and 1,960 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Shore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,960 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Shore, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Shore's boundary and the 1,046 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Shore's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lake Shore checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Shore has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clark County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Shore's 1,046 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Shore's 1,046 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Shore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,046 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Shore-wide figureread your own land →