South Wenatchee, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Wenatchee, 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 Wenatchee 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 Wenatchee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Wenatchee — the short answer
South Wenatchee, Washington: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 742 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 742 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 South Wenatchee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Wenatchee's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Wenatchee
Each reading below is measured for South Wenatchee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Wenatchee runs about 236 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
MeasuredSouth Wenatchee 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 South Wenatchee is in
South Wenatchee sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at South Wenatchee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chelan County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in South Wenatchee
Every plant below cleared South Wenatchee's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Wenatchee?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 South Wenatchee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Wenatchee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BASIN ASPHALT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DOUGLAS CNTY TRANS & LAND SVCSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- GOODYEAR TIRE WENATCHEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CONSOLIDATED FREIGHTWAYS EAST WENATCHEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WENATCHEE PACKING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ROCK ISLAND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- INLAND TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JUSTIN SCHROEDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COSTCO WHOLESALE 112Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- COSTCO WHOLESALE #112Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GRANT ROAD 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- UNOCAL 4352Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Wenatchee'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 Wenatchee.
Total Sites
305
within ~10 miles of South Wenatchee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Wenatchee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Wenatchee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Wenatchee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Wenatchee — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (218 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in South Wenatchee
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 Wenatchee average
Your land is one point inside South Wenatchee
Everything above resolves to South Wenatchee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 742 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 South Wenatchee Average
South Wenatchee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across South Wenatchee
- ●One soil character for all of South Wenatchee
- ●Frost dates read at South Wenatchee's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Wenatchee's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Wenatchee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Wenatchee, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Wenatchee averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Wenatchee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Wenatchee average
How we know this about South Wenatchee
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 South Wenatchee’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 South Wenatchee
When does frost risk typically end in South Wenatchee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Wenatchee typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in South Wenatchee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Wenatchee typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Wenatchee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Wenatchee sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Oct 22, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Wenatchee?
The federal record around South Wenatchee is a meaningful one — 305 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 South Wenatchee?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Wenatchee's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Wenatchee'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 Wenatchee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Wenatchee's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 742 acres it covers and 305 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Wenatchee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Wenatchee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 5 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 305 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Wenatchee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Wenatchee's boundary and the 742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- South Wenatchee sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Wenatchee's 742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chelan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chelan 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 Chelan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Wenatchee's 742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Wenatchee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 742 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 Wenatchee-wide figureread your own land →