North Bend, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Bend, 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 North Bend 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 North Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Bend — the short answer
North Bend, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 North Bend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Bend's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Bend
Each reading below is measured for North Bend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Bend 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
MeasuredNorth Bend 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 North Bend is in
North Bend sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at North Bend's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in North Bend
Every plant below cleared North Bend'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 North Bend?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 North Bend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Bend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRANK PADAVICHUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NORTH BEND RANGER STNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NORTH BEND 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- QFC 829 705Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- UNOCAL 2237Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUSY BEE STATION AND CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CLAFFEYS PAINTINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WA DNR NORTH BENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NORTH BEND TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FURY CONSTRUCTION COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TELEPHONE UTILITIES OF WASHINGTON NORTH BENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FLOYDS COMPLETE SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Bend'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 North Bend.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of North Bend
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Bend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Bend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Bend, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Bend — PFAS (4 sites) and Mining (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
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 irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in North Bend
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 North Bend average
Your land is one point inside North Bend
Everything above resolves to North Bend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 North Bend Average
North Bend Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across North Bend
- ●One soil character for all of North Bend
- ●Frost dates read at North Bend's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Bend's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Bend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Bend, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Bend averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Bend average
How we know this about North Bend
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 North Bend’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 North Bend
When does frost risk typically end in North Bend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Bend typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in North Bend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Bend typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Bend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Bend sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 6, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Bend?
The federal record around North Bend is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), 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 North Bend?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Bend's scale — its 8b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Bend'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 North Bend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Bend's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,783 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Bend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Bend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 20 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Bend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Bend's boundary and the 2,783 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 North Bend's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Bend's 2,783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Bend's 2,783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Bend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,783 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 North Bend-wide figureread your own land →
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