Porter, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Porter, 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 Porter 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 Porter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Porter — the short answer
Porter, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 8a is Porter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Porter's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Porter
Each reading below is measured for Porter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPorter runs about 248 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPorter sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Porter is in
Porter sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Porter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grays Harbor County.
What Grows in Porter
Every plant below cleared Porter's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Porter?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Porter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Porter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LANKNER TOOL SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MALONE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 17N/05W-20P01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- BRIGGS NURSERY WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- KARL GOERES FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- RON LARSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 17N/06W-01C01Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- ASCENSUS SPECIALTY CHEMICALSBrownfields · 5.8 mi
- ASCENSUS SPECIALTY CHEMICALSToxics Release Inventory · 5.8 mi
- ELMA MAINTENANCE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- MASCO PETROLEUM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- WA AGR GRAYS HARBOR 2Brownfields · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Porter'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 Porter.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Porter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Porter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Porter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Porter, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Porter. 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 Porter
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 Porter average
Your land is one point inside Porter
Everything above resolves to Porter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Porter Average
Porter Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Porter
- ●One soil character for all of Porter
- ●Frost dates read at Porter's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Porter's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Porter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Porter, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Porter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Porter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Porter average
How we know this about Porter
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 Porter’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 Porter
When does frost risk typically end in Porter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Porter 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 Porter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Porter typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Porter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Porter sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 3, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Porter?
The federal record around Porter shows 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles 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 Porter?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Porter's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Porter'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 Porter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Porter's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,679 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Porter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Porter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 17 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Porter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Porter's boundary and the 5,679 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Porter's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Porter's 5,679 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grays Harbor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grays Harbor 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 Grays Harbor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Porter's 5,679 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Porter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,679 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Porter-wide figureread your own land →