South Hill, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Hill, 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 South Hill 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 South Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Hill — the short answer
South Hill, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Pierce County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is South Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Hill's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Hill
Each reading below is measured for South Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSouth Hill runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pierce County, the closest normal to South Hill) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSouth Hill 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 South Hill is in
South Hill sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at South Hill's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in South Hill
Every plant below cleared South Hill's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Hill?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near South Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WA DNR CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GERBER COLLISION AND GLASS PUYALLUPBrownfields · 2200 ft
- 7-11 #5504Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ROBERT CLEGG PETER J SACK COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TARGET STORE 2136Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 17219Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALGREENS 10304Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- AMAZON GO IWA2Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- 19N/04E-22A02 UR-29BNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 19N/04E-22A01 UR-29ANitrate · 0.6 mi
- MILLER PAINT COMPANY INC PUYALLUPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PUYALLUP ROAD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Hill'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 South Hill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Hill, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of South Hill. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in South Hill
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 South Hill average
Your land is one point inside South Hill
Everything above resolves to South Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pierce 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 South Hill Average
South Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across South Hill
- ●One soil character for all of South Hill
- ●Frost dates read at South Hill's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Hill's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Hill, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Hill average
How we know this about South Hill
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 Pierce 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 South Hill
When does frost risk typically end in South Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Hill typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in South Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Hill typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Hill sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 9, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Hill?
The federal record around South Hill runs heavier than most — 1,176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (670), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in South Hill?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Hill's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Hill'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 South Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at South Hill's own scale — the 11,894 acres it covers and 1,176 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Hill's boundary and the 11,894 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- South Hill sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — South Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pierce County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Hill's 11,894 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Hill's 11,894 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,894 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 South Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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