Schwana, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Schwana, 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 Schwana 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 Schwana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Schwana — the short answer
Schwana, Washington: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 161 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 7b is Schwana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schwana's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Schwana
Each reading below is measured for Schwana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSchwana runs about 234 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
MeasuredSchwana sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Schwana is in
Schwana sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Schwana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Schwana
Every plant below cleared Schwana's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Schwana?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Schwana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Schwana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 15N/23E-03H01Nitrate · 600 ft
- 16N/23E-34F02Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- THE OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PRIEST RAPIDS DAM SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WA WSP BEVERLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GPUD SENTINEL PEAK MICROWAVE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WANAPUM DAM SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- WANAPUM STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GRANT CNTY PUD 2 WANAPUMBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- 15N/23E-28B01 OE56Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- OUTWEST CHERRY ORCHARDS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- WAHLUKE SCHOOL DISTRICT 73Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schwana'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 Schwana.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Schwana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Schwana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Schwana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schwana, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Schwana. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Schwana
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 Schwana average
Your land is one point inside Schwana
Everything above resolves to Schwana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 Schwana Average
Schwana Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Schwana
- ●One soil character for all of Schwana
- ●Frost dates read at Schwana's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schwana's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Schwana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schwana, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schwana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schwana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schwana average
How we know this about Schwana
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 Schwana’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 Schwana
When does frost risk typically end in Schwana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schwana typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 5.
When is the first frost in Schwana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Schwana typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Schwana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schwana sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 21, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Schwana?
The federal record around Schwana is a meaningful one — 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), 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 Schwana?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Schwana's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schwana'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 Schwana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Schwana's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schwana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Schwana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 4 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Schwana, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Schwana's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Schwana's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Schwana's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Schwana's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Schwana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 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 Schwana-wide figureread your own land →
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