Rockport, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rockport, 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 Rockport 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 Rockport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rockport — the short answer
Rockport, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 233 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 233 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 Rockport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockport's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockport
Each reading below is measured for Rockport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRockport runs about 233 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
MeasuredRockport 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 Rockport is in
Rockport sits in the North Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rockport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Skagit County.
What Grows in Rockport
Every plant below cleared Rockport's own zone 8b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockport?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Rockport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROCKPORT STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SKAGIT COUNTY RFA STATION 3Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- ROCKPORT PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FRANK MCGOVERN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- WA WSP ROCKPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HURN SHINGLE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- DIABLO LAKE RESORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- BRANNAMS CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- PSE Lower Baker Visitor CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- LOWER BAKER GENERATING STNUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- TEXACO PETERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- PETERSON MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockport'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 Rockport.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockport, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Rockport. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Rockport
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 Rockport average
Your land is one point inside Rockport
Everything above resolves to Rockport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 233 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 Rockport Average
Rockport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Rockport
- ●One soil character for all of Rockport
- ●Frost dates read at Rockport's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockport's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockport, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockport average
How we know this about Rockport
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 Rockport’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 Rockport
When does frost risk typically end in Rockport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockport typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Rockport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockport typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockport sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 4, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockport?
The federal record around Rockport is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rockport?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rockport's scale — its 8b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockport'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 Rockport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rockport's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 233 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 18 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockport's boundary and the 233 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rockport's own centroid, the North CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockport's 233 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Skagit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Skagit 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 Skagit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockport's 233 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 233 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rockport-wide figureread your own land →
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