Poulsbo, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Poulsbo, 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 Poulsbo 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 Poulsbo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Poulsbo — the short answer
Poulsbo, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 3K 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 Poulsbo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poulsbo's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poulsbo
Each reading below is measured for Poulsbo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPoulsbo runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Kitsap County, the closest normal to Poulsbo) — 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
MeasuredPoulsbo 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 Poulsbo is in
Poulsbo sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Poulsbo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kitsap County.
What Grows in Poulsbo
Every plant below cleared Poulsbo'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 Poulsbo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Poulsbo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poulsbo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POULSBO VILLAGE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FRONTIER DERMATOLOGY POULSBOBrownfields · 1200 ft
- FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER CENTER PENINSULABrownfields · 1200 ft
- TOTAL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- POULSBO CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SAFEWAY FUEL 27-3148Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SAFEWAY 3148Brownfields · 2000 ft
- WA 105Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASCADE SPECIALTY PHARMACY LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS STORE 701856Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LIBERTY BAY AUTO CENTER INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 10473Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poulsbo'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 Poulsbo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poulsbo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poulsbo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poulsbo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Poulsbo — Nitrate (368 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Poulsbo
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 Poulsbo average
Your land is one point inside Poulsbo
Everything above resolves to Poulsbo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kitsap 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 Poulsbo Average
Poulsbo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Poulsbo
- ●One soil character for all of Poulsbo
- ●Frost dates read at Poulsbo's scale: Feb 15 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poulsbo's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poulsbo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poulsbo, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poulsbo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poulsbo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poulsbo average
How we know this about Poulsbo
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 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 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 Poulsbo
When does frost risk typically end in Poulsbo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poulsbo 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 Poulsbo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poulsbo 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 Poulsbo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poulsbo 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 Poulsbo?
The federal record around Poulsbo runs heavier than most — 628 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (368), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Poulsbo?
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 Poulsbo's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poulsbo'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 Poulsbo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Poulsbo's own scale — the 3,053 acres it covers and 628 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poulsbo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 628 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poulsbo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poulsbo's boundary and the 3,053 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 Poulsbo's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Poulsbo 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 Poulsbo's 3,053 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 Poulsbo's 3,053 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poulsbo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,053 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Poulsbo-wide figureread your own land →