Metaline Falls, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Metaline Falls, 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 Falls 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 Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Metaline Falls — the short answer
Metaline Falls, Washington: USDA zone 6a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 127 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 127 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 Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Metaline Falls's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Metaline Falls
Each reading below is measured for Metaline Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMetaline Falls runs about 175 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 Falls 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 Falls is in
Metaline Falls sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Metaline Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pend Oreille County.
What Grows in Metaline Falls
Every plant below cleared Metaline Falls's own zone 6a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Metaline Falls?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Metaline Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Metaline Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAN AM AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SELKIRK ADMINISTATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LEHIGH PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- METALINE FALLS GENERATOR 4450-B1AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- METALINE FALLS STORAGE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SULLIVAN LAKE RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BOUNDARY SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LEHIGH CEMENT COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- USDOI BLM JOSEPHINE MILL #2 AKA NEW JOSEPHINE MILLSuperfund · 1400 ft
- Washington ClaimMining · 2400 ft
- Metaline FallsMining · 2500 ft
- WashingtonMining · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Metaline Falls'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 Falls.
Total Sites
250
within ~10 miles of Metaline Falls
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Metaline Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Metaline Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Metaline Falls, Mining runs higher than the national average — 220 sites within ~10 miles of Metaline Falls. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Metaline Falls
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 Falls average
Your land is one point inside Metaline Falls
Everything above resolves to Metaline Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127 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 Falls Average
Metaline Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Metaline Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Metaline Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Metaline Falls's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Metaline Falls's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Metaline Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Metaline Falls, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Metaline Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Metaline Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Metaline Falls average
How we know this about Metaline Falls
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 Falls’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 Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Metaline Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Metaline Falls typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Metaline Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Metaline Falls typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Metaline Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Metaline Falls sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 3, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Metaline Falls?
The federal record around Metaline Falls runs heavier than most — 250 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (220), 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 Falls?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Metaline Falls's scale — its 6a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Metaline Falls'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 Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Metaline Falls's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 127 acres it covers and 250 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Metaline Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Metaline Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 17 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 250 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Metaline Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Metaline Falls's boundary and the 127 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Metaline Falls's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Metaline Falls's 127 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 Falls's 127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Metaline Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 127 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 Falls-wide figureread your own land →