Pataha, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pataha, 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 Pataha 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 Pataha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pataha — the short answer
Pataha, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 226 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 226 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 7a is Pataha's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pataha's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pataha
Each reading below is measured for Pataha itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPataha runs about 191 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
MeasuredPataha sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Pataha is in
Pataha sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Pataha's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garfield County.
What Grows in Pataha
Every plant below cleared Pataha's own zone 7a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pataha?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Pataha
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pataha. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WA DOT POMEROY MAINTENANCE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BARTELS LONE STAR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WESTERN FARM SERVICE INC POMEROYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GENERAL TRACTOR & IMPLMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FOUR STAR SUPPLY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DOUGS TEXACO & TOWINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 11N/42E-05C01 PAS13Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- COLEMAN OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- POMEROY SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 12N/42E-31L01 PAS14Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- FARM & HOME SUPPLYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- FISCHER AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pataha'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 Pataha.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pataha
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pataha, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Pataha. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pataha
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 Pataha average
Your land is one point inside Pataha
Everything above resolves to Pataha as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 226 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 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 Pataha Average
Pataha Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pataha
- ●One soil character for all of Pataha
- ●Frost dates read at Pataha's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pataha's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pataha
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pataha, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pataha averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pataha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pataha average
How we know this about Pataha
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 Pataha’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 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 Pataha
When does frost risk typically end in Pataha?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pataha typically lands around Apr 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Pataha?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pataha typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pataha?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pataha sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 8, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pataha?
The federal record around Pataha is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pataha?
From about Sep 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 Oct 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pataha's scale — its 7a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pataha'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 Pataha’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pataha's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 226 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pataha's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pataha's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 22 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pataha, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pataha's boundary and the 226 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pataha's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pataha's 226 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garfield 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 Garfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pataha's 226 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pataha you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 226 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Pataha-wide figureread your own land →
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