Starbuck, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Starbuck, 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 Starbuck 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 Starbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Starbuck — the short answer
Starbuck, Washington: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 126 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 126 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 Starbuck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Starbuck's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Starbuck
Each reading below is measured for Starbuck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStarbuck 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
MeasuredStarbuck 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 Starbuck is in
Starbuck sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Starbuck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Starbuck
Every plant below cleared Starbuck'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 Starbuck?
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 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 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Starbuck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Starbuck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIMMELBERGER OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LITTLE GOOSE LOCK AND DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LYONS FERRY STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STARBUCK SECTION TOOL HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LITTLE GOOSE SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PALOUSE ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- LYONS FERRY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 13N/38E-27B01Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- LITTLE GOOSE LOCK AND DAMBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- 13N/38E-26E01Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- LYONS FERRY HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- GAS TRANSMISSION NW STATION 7Brownfields · 7.9 mi
Measured from Starbuck'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 Starbuck.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Starbuck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Starbuck
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Starbuck
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 Starbuck average
Your land is one point inside Starbuck
Everything above resolves to Starbuck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 126 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 Starbuck Average
Starbuck Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Starbuck
- ●One soil character for all of Starbuck
- ●Frost dates read at Starbuck's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Starbuck's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Starbuck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Starbuck, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Starbuck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Starbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Starbuck average
How we know this about Starbuck
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 Starbuck’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 Starbuck
When does frost risk typically end in Starbuck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Starbuck 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 Starbuck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Starbuck typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Starbuck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Starbuck sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 23, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Starbuck?
The federal record around Starbuck is light — 14 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Starbuck?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Starbuck's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Starbuck'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 Starbuck’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Starbuck's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 126 acres it covers and 14 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Starbuck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Starbuck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 6 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Starbuck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Starbuck's boundary and the 126 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 Starbuck's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Starbuck's 126 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Starbuck's 126 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Starbuck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 126 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Starbuck-wide figureread your own land →
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