Metaline, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Metaline, 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 Metaline 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 Metaline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Metaline — the short answer
Metaline, Washington: USDA zone 6a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 196 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 196 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 Metaline's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Metaline's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Metaline
Each reading below is measured for Metaline itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMetaline runs about 171 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
MeasuredMetaline 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 Metaline is in
Metaline sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Metaline's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pend Oreille County.
What Grows in Metaline
Every plant below cleared Metaline's own zone 6a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Metaline?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Metaline
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Metaline. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- METALINE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Ace Ten SpotMining · 0.6 mi
- Bella May, Diamond R., Polly MollyMining · 0.7 mi
- USDOI BLM JOSEPHINE MILL #2 AKA NEW JOSEPHINE MILLSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- MetalineMining · 0.7 mi
- Bella May MineMining · 0.7 mi
- SELKIRK ADMINISTATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Blue BucketMining · 0.8 mi
- Lehigh No. 1Mining · 0.8 mi
- Bella May MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Bella MayMining · 0.9 mi
- CAN AM AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Metaline'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 Metaline.
Total Sites
243
within ~10 miles of Metaline
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Metaline
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Metaline
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Metaline, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Metaline — Mining (211 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Metaline
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 Metaline average
Your land is one point inside Metaline
Everything above resolves to Metaline as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 196 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 Metaline Average
Metaline Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Metaline
- ●One soil character for all of Metaline
- ●Frost dates read at Metaline's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Metaline's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Metaline
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Metaline, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Metaline averages can't show:
We read public map data around Metaline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Metaline average
How we know this about Metaline
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 Metaline’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 Metaline
When does frost risk typically end in Metaline?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Metaline typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Metaline?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Metaline typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Metaline?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Metaline sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 30, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Metaline?
The federal record around Metaline runs heavier than most — 243 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (211), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Metaline?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Metaline's scale — its 6a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Metaline'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 Metaline’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Metaline's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 196 acres it covers and 243 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Metaline's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Metaline's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 14 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 243 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Metaline, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Metaline's boundary and the 196 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Metaline's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Metaline's 196 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pend Oreille County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pend Oreille 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 Pend Oreille County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Metaline's 196 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Metaline you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 196 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Metaline-wide figureread your own land →