Sequim, 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.
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 Sequim, 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 Sequim 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 Sequim — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sequim — the short answer
Sequim, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Sequim's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sequim's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sequim
Each reading below is measured for Sequim itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSequim runs about 250 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
MeasuredSequim 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 Sequim is in
Sequim sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Sequim'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 Sequim
Every plant below cleared Sequim's own zone 8b and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sequim?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Sequim
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sequim. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 30N/03W-20K01D1Nitrate · 900 ft
- QUALITY FOOD CENTERS QFC FUEL STOP 841Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- QFC 841 705Brownfields · 1200 ft
- 101 OUTPOST STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- UNOCAL 5860Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS STORE 708266Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- COBURN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CLALLAM COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SEQUIM TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CENTURYLINK QCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WRIGHT PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SEQUIM GULL 293Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sequim'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 Sequim.
Total Sites
240
within ~10 miles of Sequim
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sequim
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sequim
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sequim, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sequim — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (148 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Sequim
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 Sequim average
Your land is one point inside Sequim
Everything above resolves to Sequim as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Sequim Average
Sequim Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sequim
- ●One soil character for all of Sequim
- ●Frost dates read at Sequim's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sequim's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sequim
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sequim, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sequim averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sequim — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sequim average
How we know this about Sequim
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 Sequim’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 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 Sequim
When does frost risk typically end in Sequim?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sequim typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Sequim?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sequim typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sequim?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sequim sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Oct 29, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sequim?
The federal record around Sequim is a meaningful one — 240 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (148), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Sequim?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sequim's scale — its 8b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sequim'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 Sequim’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sequim's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,044 acres it covers and 240 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sequim's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sequim's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 12 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 240 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sequim, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sequim's boundary and the 4,044 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sequim 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 Sequim's 4,044 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 Sequim's 4,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sequim you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,044 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Sequim-wide figureread your own land →