Longview, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Longview, 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 Longview 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 Longview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Longview — the short answer
Longview, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Cowlitz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Cowlitz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- Cowlitz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Cowlitz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Longview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Longview's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Longview
Each reading below is measured for Longview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLongview runs about 251 days between hard freezes (read from Cowlitz County, the closest normal to Longview) — 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
MeasuredLongview 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 Longview is in
Longview sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Longview's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cowlitz County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Longview
Every plant below cleared Longview's own zone 8b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Longview?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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 Longview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Longview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEACH WAY GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- OCEAN BEACH CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FRED MEYER 185 FM FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FRED MEYER FUEL 185Brownfields · 950 ft
- RIO WEST RESTAURANT LONGVIEWUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WALGREENS 9812Brownfields · 950 ft
- SAFEWAY FUEL CTR 1078Brownfields · 1100 ft
- SAFEWAY FUEL 1078Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LOWES HOME CENTERS LLC 1887Brownfields · 1500 ft
- LOWER COLUMBIA COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WEYERHAEUSER COMPANY LONGVIEW MINT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MILLER'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Longview'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 Longview.
Total Sites
420
within ~10 miles of Longview
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Longview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Longview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Longview, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Longview — Toxics Release Inventory (30 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (293 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Longview
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 Longview average
Your land is one point inside Longview
Everything above resolves to Longview as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cowlitz 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 Longview Average
Longview Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Longview
- ●One soil character for all of Longview
- ●Frost dates read at Longview's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Longview's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Longview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Longview, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Longview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Longview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Longview average
How we know this about Longview
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 Cowlitz 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 Longview
When does frost risk typically end in Longview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Longview typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Longview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Longview 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 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Longview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Longview sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 5, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Longview?
The federal record around Longview is a meaningful one — 420 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (293), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Longview?
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 Longview's scale — its 8b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Longview'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 Longview’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Longview's own scale — the 9,473 acres it covers and 420 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Longview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 420 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Longview, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Longview's boundary and the 9,473 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Longview 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 — Longview has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cowlitz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Longview's 9,473 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cowlitz County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cowlitz 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 Cowlitz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Longview's 9,473 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Longview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,473 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Longview-wide figureread your own land →