Mossyrock, 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.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mossyrock, 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 Mossyrock 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 Mossyrock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mossyrock — the short answer
Mossyrock, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 480 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 480 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 8b is Mossyrock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mossyrock's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mossyrock
Each reading below is measured for Mossyrock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMossyrock runs about 250 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredMossyrock 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 Mossyrock is in
Mossyrock sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mossyrock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lewis County.
What Grows in Mossyrock
Every plant below cleared Mossyrock's own zone 8b and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mossyrock?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Mossyrock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mossyrock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOSSYROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT 206Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MOSSYROCK SHOP AREA 6Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MOSSY ROCK MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MOSSY MINIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ALFRED G MYERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DAVES REPAIR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LEWIS COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT 3Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- IKE KINSWA STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WA DFW MOSSYROCK FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MOSSYROCK PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- MAYFIELD LAKE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LAKE MAYFIELD VILLAGE RESORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mossyrock'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 Mossyrock.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of Mossyrock
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mossyrock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mossyrock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mossyrock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mossyrock — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (19 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mossyrock
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 Mossyrock average
Your land is one point inside Mossyrock
Everything above resolves to Mossyrock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 480 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 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 Mossyrock Average
Mossyrock Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mossyrock
- ●One soil character for all of Mossyrock
- ●Frost dates read at Mossyrock's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mossyrock's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mossyrock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mossyrock, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mossyrock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mossyrock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mossyrock average
How we know this about Mossyrock
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 Mossyrock’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 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 Mossyrock
When does frost risk typically end in Mossyrock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mossyrock typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Mossyrock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mossyrock 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 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mossyrock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mossyrock sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 5, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mossyrock?
The federal record around Mossyrock is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mossyrock?
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 Mossyrock's scale — its 8b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mossyrock'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 Mossyrock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mossyrock's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 480 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mossyrock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mossyrock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 19 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mossyrock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mossyrock's boundary and the 480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mossyrock's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mossyrock's 480 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mossyrock's 480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mossyrock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 480 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 Mossyrock-wide figureread your own land →
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