Palouse, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Palouse, 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 Palouse 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 Palouse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palouse — the short answer
Palouse, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 670 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 670 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 6b is Palouse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palouse's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palouse
Each reading below is measured for Palouse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalouse runs about 181 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
MeasuredPalouse sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Palouse is in
Palouse sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Palouse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whitman County.
What Grows in Palouse
Every plant below cleared Palouse's own zone 6b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palouse?
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 Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Palouse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palouse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LONESOME PINE SMALL ENG REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- PALOUSE PRODUCERS INC PALOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PALOUSE CENTRAL OFFICE (4500-B02)Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JOHN J GEARHARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WHITMAN COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PALOUSE SCHOOL DISTRICT 301Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MCGREGOR CO PALOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 42N 06W 25CDA1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 41N 05W 08BBC1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- DORAN B ROGERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- JACK CLARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- D KEITH MADERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palouse'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 Palouse.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palouse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palouse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palouse, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Palouse — Nitrate (22 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (43 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Palouse
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 Palouse average
Your land is one point inside Palouse
Everything above resolves to Palouse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 670 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 Palouse Average
Palouse Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Palouse
- ●One soil character for all of Palouse
- ●Frost dates read at Palouse's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palouse's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palouse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palouse, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palouse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palouse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palouse average
How we know this about Palouse
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 Palouse’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 Palouse
When does frost risk typically end in Palouse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palouse typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Palouse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palouse typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palouse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palouse sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palouse?
The federal record around Palouse shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Palouse?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palouse's scale — its 6b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palouse'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 Palouse’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palouse's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 670 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palouse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palouse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palouse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palouse's boundary and the 670 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palouse's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palouse's 670 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whitman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whitman 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 Whitman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palouse's 670 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palouse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 670 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Palouse-wide figureread your own land →
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