Parkwood, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Parkwood, 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 Parkwood 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 Parkwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Parkwood — the short answer
Parkwood, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Kitsap County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Kitsap County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Parkwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parkwood's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parkwood
Each reading below is measured for Parkwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParkwood runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Kitsap County, the closest normal to Parkwood) — 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
MeasuredParkwood 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 Parkwood is in
Parkwood sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Parkwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kitsap County.
What Grows in Parkwood
Every plant below cleared Parkwood's own zone 8b and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parkwood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Parkwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parkwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARCUS WHITMAN JHS SOUTH KITSAP SD 402Brownfields · 1200 ft
- VILLAGE GREENS GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SOUTH KITSAP SCHOOL DISTRICT CENTRAL WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- SHREE HARI ARCO AMPMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 25332LUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- KITSAP CO FIRE DISTRICT NO 7Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PORT ORCHARD GAS & MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CEDAR CREEK ANIMAL CLINIC PORT ORCHARDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- DONS SOUTHPARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALBERTSONS 475Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- PORT ORCHARD RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HUFENG'S QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parkwood'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 Parkwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parkwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parkwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parkwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Parkwood — Superfund (16 sites) and PFAS (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Parkwood
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 Parkwood average
Your land is one point inside Parkwood
Everything above resolves to Parkwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kitsap County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Parkwood Average
Parkwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Parkwood
- ●One soil character for all of Parkwood
- ●Frost dates read at Parkwood's scale: Feb 15 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parkwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parkwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parkwood, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parkwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parkwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parkwood average
How we know this about Parkwood
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Kitsap 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Parkwood
When does frost risk typically end in Parkwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parkwood typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 8.
When is the first frost in Parkwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parkwood typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parkwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parkwood sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 13, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parkwood?
The federal record around Parkwood runs heavier than most — 657 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (370), the nearest Brownfields 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 Parkwood?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parkwood's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parkwood'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 Parkwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Parkwood's own scale — the 1,671 acres it covers and 657 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parkwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 657 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parkwood, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parkwood's boundary and the 1,671 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parkwood's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Parkwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kitsap County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parkwood's 1,671 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kitsap County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kitsap 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 Kitsap County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parkwood's 1,671 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parkwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,671 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Parkwood-wide figureread your own land →