Skokomish, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Skokomish, 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 Skokomish 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 Skokomish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Skokomish — the short answer
Skokomish, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- Mason County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- Mason County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- Mason County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Mason County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Skokomish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Skokomish's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Skokomish
Each reading below is measured for Skokomish itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSkokomish runs about 243 days between hard freezes (read from Mason County, the closest normal to Skokomish) — 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
MeasuredSkokomish sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Skokomish is in
Skokomish sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Skokomish's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Skokomish
Plants matched to Skokomish's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Skokomish?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (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. 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 Skokomish
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Skokomish. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21N/04W-11C02Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 21N/04W-11F01Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 21N/04W-11B03Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 21N/04W-02Q02Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 21N/04W-02P02Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 21N/04W-02L02Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 21N/04W-11H02Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 21N/04W-02F01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 21N/04W-11H01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 21N/04W-02L03Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 21N/04W-02K01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 21N/04W-02F02Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Skokomish'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 Skokomish.
Total Sites
217
within ~10 miles of Skokomish
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Skokomish
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Skokomish
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Skokomish, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Skokomish. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Skokomish
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 Skokomish average
Your land is one point inside Skokomish
Everything above resolves to Skokomish as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mason County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Skokomish Average
Skokomish Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Skokomish
- ●One soil character for all of Skokomish
- ●Frost dates read at Skokomish's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Skokomish's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Skokomish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Skokomish, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Skokomish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Skokomish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Skokomish average
How we know this about Skokomish
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 Mason County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Skokomish
When does frost risk typically end in Skokomish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Skokomish typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Skokomish?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Skokomish 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 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Skokomish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Skokomish sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 1, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Skokomish?
The federal record around Skokomish is a meaningful one — 217 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (114), 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 Skokomish?
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 Skokomish's scale — its 9a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Skokomish'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 Skokomish’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Skokomish's own scale — the 4,268 acres it covers and 217 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Skokomish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 217 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Skokomish, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Skokomish's boundary and the 4,268 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Skokomish's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Skokomish has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mason County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Skokomish's 4,268 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- The candidate plant list — Washington's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Washington
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Skokomish's 4,268 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Skokomish you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,268 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 Skokomish-wide figureread your own land →