Quilcene, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Quilcene, 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 Quilcene 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 Quilcene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Quilcene — the short answer
Quilcene, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- 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
- ~242
- 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 8b is Quilcene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quilcene's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quilcene
Each reading below is measured for Quilcene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredQuilcene runs about 242 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
MeasuredQuilcene 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 Quilcene is in
Quilcene sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Quilcene's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jefferson County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Quilcene
Every plant below cleared Quilcene's own zone 8b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quilcene?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Quilcene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quilcene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRANK D HYDE CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- QUILCENE WASTE DISPOSAL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PLEINES LOGGING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 27N/02W-22R01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- PEDERSON MILLING & LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LEE YEAGER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- QUILCENE FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- QUILCENE VILLAGE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 27N/02W-24C01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- JOSEPH F POLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 27N/02W-22Q02Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- QUILCENE SCHOOL DISTRICT 48Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quilcene'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 Quilcene.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Quilcene
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Quilcene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quilcene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quilcene, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Quilcene — Underground Storage Tanks (25 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Quilcene
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 Quilcene average
Your land is one point inside Quilcene
Everything above resolves to Quilcene 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 Quilcene Average
Quilcene Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Quilcene
- ●One soil character for all of Quilcene
- ●Frost dates read at Quilcene's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quilcene's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quilcene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quilcene, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quilcene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quilcene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quilcene average
How we know this about Quilcene
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 Quilcene’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 Quilcene
When does frost risk typically end in Quilcene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quilcene typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Quilcene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quilcene 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 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quilcene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quilcene sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 3, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quilcene?
The federal record around Quilcene is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), 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 Quilcene?
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 Quilcene's scale — its 8b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quilcene'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 Quilcene’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Quilcene's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,639 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quilcene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Quilcene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 17 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quilcene, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quilcene's boundary and the 5,639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Quilcene sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quilcene's 5,639 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Quilcene's 5,639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quilcene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,639 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 Quilcene-wide figureread your own land →