Lake Stickney, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Stickney, 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 Stickney 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 Stickney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Stickney — the short answer
Lake Stickney, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- Snohomish County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- Snohomish County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- Snohomish 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 Snohomish County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lake Stickney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Stickney's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Stickney
Each reading below is measured for Lake Stickney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Stickney runs about 208 days between hard freezes (read from Snohomish County, the closest normal to Lake Stickney) — 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 Stickney 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 Stickney is in
Lake Stickney sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Lake Stickney's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Snohomish County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lake Stickney
Plants matched to Lake Stickney'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 Stickney?
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 Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Lake Stickney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Stickney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VIACOM CABLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FRITO-LAY SALES DISTRIBUTION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VSE AVIATION SERVICESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MCKESSON DRUG COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TEUFEL NURSERY OF WASHINGTON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MARINER RSU 2078-B01Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ALL BATTERIES SALES AND SERVICEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- HOWATT COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ARCO 05443 LIAQUAT JUMANIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH EVERETT TIRE DEX 3258Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALBERTSONS 0461Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- PEP BOYS #6446Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Stickney'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 Stickney.
Total Sites
1,642
within ~10 miles of Lake Stickney
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Stickney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Stickney
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Stickney
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 Stickney average
Your land is one point inside Lake Stickney
Everything above resolves to Lake Stickney as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Snohomish 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 Stickney Average
Lake Stickney Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lake Stickney
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Stickney
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Stickney's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Stickney's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Stickney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Stickney, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Stickney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Stickney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Stickney average
How we know this about Lake Stickney
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 Snohomish 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 Stickney
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Stickney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Stickney typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Lake Stickney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Stickney typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Stickney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Stickney sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 26, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Stickney?
The federal record around Lake Stickney is a meaningful one — 1,642 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,002), 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 Stickney?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Stickney's scale — its 9a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Stickney'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 Stickney’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Lake Stickney's own scale — the 1,273 acres it covers and 1,642 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Stickney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,642 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Stickney, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Stickney's boundary and the 1,273 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Lake Stickney sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Stickney has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Snohomish County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Stickney's 1,273 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Snohomish 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 Snohomish 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 Snohomish County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Stickney's 1,273 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Stickney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,273 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 Stickney-wide figureread your own land →