Pacific, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pacific, 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 Pacific 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 Pacific — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pacific — the short answer
Pacific, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are King County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pacific's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pacific's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pacific
Each reading below is measured for Pacific itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPacific runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Pacific) — 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
MeasuredPacific 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 Pacific is in
Pacific sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Pacific's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Pacific
Every plant below cleared Pacific's own zone 8b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pacific?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Pacific
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pacific. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pacific Congregation Parking LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PACIFIC CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PACIFIC, CITY OFPFAS · 1500 ft
- APPLY A LINEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NORMS TRUCK AND EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 2500 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE PACIFICBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PARKER TRUCK & EQUIPMENT REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BFI 995 VALENTINE AVE SE PACIFICBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- INTEGRITY FLEET SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- FREIGHTLINER NORTHWESTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PACIFIC AM PMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KING COUNTY WLRD PACIFIC PARKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pacific'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 Pacific.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pacific
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pacific
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pacific, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Pacific. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pacific
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 Pacific average
Your land is one point inside Pacific
Everything above resolves to Pacific as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Pacific Average
Pacific Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pacific
- ●One soil character for all of Pacific
- ●Frost dates read at Pacific's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pacific's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pacific
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pacific, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pacific averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pacific — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pacific average
How we know this about Pacific
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 King County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Pacific
When does frost risk typically end in Pacific?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific 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 Pacific?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pacific?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pacific sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pacific?
The federal record around Pacific runs heavier than most — 2,193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,264), 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 Pacific?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pacific's scale — its 8b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pacific'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 Pacific’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pacific's own scale — the 1,549 acres it covers and 2,193 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pacific's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pacific, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pacific's boundary and the 1,549 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pacific's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pacific has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom King County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pacific's 1,549 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 Pacific's 1,549 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pacific you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,549 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 Pacific-wide figureread your own land →
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