Loon Lake, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Loon Lake, 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 Loon Lake 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 Loon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loon Lake — the short answer
Loon Lake, Washington: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Loon Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loon Lake's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loon Lake
Each reading below is measured for Loon Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoon Lake runs about 169 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLoon Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Loon Lake is in
Loon Lake sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Loon Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stevens County.
What Grows in Loon Lake
Every plant below cleared Loon Lake's own zone 6a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loon Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Loon Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loon Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST BAY PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LOON LAKE SCHOOL DISTRICT 183Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHORE ACRES RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LOON LAKE SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LOON LAKE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 30N/41E-33P01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- LANCIEN'S LANDING RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Trampus ProspectMining · 3.7 mi
- SPOKANE ROCK PRODUCTS ELK PITToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
- BOISE CASCADE LOGGING OFFICE LOON LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Cleveland MineMining · 4.7 mi
- Suzan Copper ProspectMining · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loon Lake'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 Loon Lake.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Loon Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loon Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loon Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loon Lake, Mining runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Loon Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Loon Lake
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 Loon Lake average
Your land is one point inside Loon Lake
Everything above resolves to Loon Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. 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 Loon Lake Average
Loon Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Loon Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Loon Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Loon Lake's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loon Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loon Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loon Lake, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loon Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loon Lake average
How we know this about Loon Lake
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 Loon Lake’s own record; 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 Loon Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Loon Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loon Lake typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Loon Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loon Lake typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loon Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loon Lake sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 1, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loon Lake?
The federal record around Loon Lake is a meaningful one — 48 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Loon Lake?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loon Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loon Lake'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 Loon Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Loon Lake's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,088 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loon Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loon Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 15 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loon Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loon Lake's boundary and the 2,088 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loon Lake's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loon Lake's 2,088 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stevens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stevens 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 Stevens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loon Lake's 2,088 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loon Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,088 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Loon Lake-wide figureread your own land →