Orting, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Orting, 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 Orting 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 Orting — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orting — the short answer
Orting, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 8b is Orting's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orting's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orting
Each reading below is measured for Orting itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrting runs about 273 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOrting 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 Orting is in
Orting sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Orting's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Orting
Every plant below cleared Orting's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orting?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Orting
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orting. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAFEWAY 1844Brownfields · 750 ft
- SAFEWAY FUEL 1844Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ORTING TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Washington Ave Two Way Left Turn Lane ImprovementsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ORTING FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ORTING EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Puget Sound National Bank OrtingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ORTING SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MAZZA CHEESE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JOHNS ORTING TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ORTING CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orting'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 Orting.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orting
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orting
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orting, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Orting. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Orting
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 Orting average
Your land is one point inside Orting
Everything above resolves to Orting 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 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 Orting Average
Orting Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Orting
- ●One soil character for all of Orting
- ●Frost dates read at Orting's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orting's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orting
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orting, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orting averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orting — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orting average
How we know this about Orting
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 Orting’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 Orting
When does frost risk typically end in Orting?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orting typically lands around Feb 24, 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 Mar 17.
When is the first frost in Orting?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orting typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orting?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orting sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 10, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orting?
The federal record around Orting runs heavier than most — 664 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (378), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Orting?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orting's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orting'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 Orting’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Orting's own scale — its own ~273-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,731 acres it covers and 664 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orting's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orting's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 24 and Nov 24 and the ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 664 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orting, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orting's boundary and the 1,731 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Orting sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orting's 1,731 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orting's 1,731 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orting you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,731 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Orting-wide figureread your own land →
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