River Road, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 River Road, 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 River Road 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 River Road — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
River Road — the short answer
River Road, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 225 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 225 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 River Road's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against River Road's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in River Road
Each reading below is measured for River Road itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiver Road runs about 254 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
MeasuredRiver Road 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 River Road is in
River Road sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at River Road's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clallam County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in River Road
Every plant below cleared River Road's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in River Road?
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 Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 River Road
Closest first, within ~10 miles of River Road. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 30N/04W-25A01D1Nitrate · 700 ft
- 30N/04W-25L10Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MIL-KEY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ERICS AUTO ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 30N/03W-30K03Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- WA AGR CLALLAM 1Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE 8998Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- PETCO 1225Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- D & K RENTALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COSTCO GASOLINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WAL MART 5273Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- COSTCO WHOLESALE 639Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from River Road'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 River Road.
Total Sites
243
within ~10 miles of River Road
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of River Road
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of River Road
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around River Road, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of River Road — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (150 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in River Road
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 River Road average
Your land is one point inside River Road
Everything above resolves to River Road as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 225 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 River Road Average
River Road Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across River Road
- ●One soil character for all of River Road
- ●Frost dates read at River Road's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not River Road's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in River Road
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in River Road, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that River Road averages can't show:
We read public map data around River Road — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the River Road average
How we know this about River Road
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 River Road’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 River Road
When does frost risk typically end in River Road?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in River Road typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in River Road?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in River Road typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in River Road?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, River Road sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 1, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in River Road?
The federal record around River Road is a meaningful one — 243 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (150), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in River Road?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at River Road's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of River Road'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 River Road’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at River Road's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 225 acres it covers and 243 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- River Road's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- River Road's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 15 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 243 documented contamination sites on the federal record near River Road, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- River Road's boundary and the 225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- River Road 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 River Road's 225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clallam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clallam 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 Clallam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among River Road's 225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of River Road you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 225 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 River Road-wide figureread your own land →