Sumner, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sumner, 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 Sumner 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 Sumner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sumner — the short answer
Sumner, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 5K 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 Sumner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sumner's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sumner
Each reading below is measured for Sumner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSumner runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pierce County, the closest normal to Sumner) — 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
MeasuredSumner 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 Sumner is in
Sumner sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Sumner'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 Sumner
Every plant below cleared Sumner'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 Sumner?
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 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 Sumner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sumner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OMADA INTERNATIONAL SUMNER DIVISIONBrownfields · 800 ft
- ROADRUNNERTRANSPORTATION SERVICESBrownfields · 1400 ft
- THERMO FLUIDS WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- AMAZON COM SERVICES LLC DWA9Brownfields · 1600 ft
- ASSOCIATED PETROLEUM PRODUCTS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VEYER DC #3048Brownfields · 2200 ft
- ELECTRONIC RECYCLERS INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SWIFT TRANSPORTATION SUMNERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- COSTCO WHOLESALE DEPOTS 171 AND 285Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- ABF FREIGHT SYSTEMS - SUMNERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CITY TRANSFER OF KENT INC QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY TRANSFER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sumner'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 Sumner.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sumner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sumner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sumner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sumner — Superfund (52 sites) and PFAS (17 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sumner
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 Sumner average
Your land is one point inside Sumner
Everything above resolves to Sumner as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pierce County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Sumner Average
Sumner Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sumner
- ●One soil character for all of Sumner
- ●Frost dates read at Sumner's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sumner's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sumner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sumner, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sumner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sumner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sumner average
How we know this about Sumner
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 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 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 Sumner
When does frost risk typically end in Sumner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sumner 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 Sumner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sumner 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 Sumner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sumner 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 Sumner?
The federal record around Sumner runs heavier than most — 1,901 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,083), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Sumner?
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 Sumner's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sumner'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 Sumner’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sumner's own scale — the 4,835 acres it covers and 1,901 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sumner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,901 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sumner, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sumner's boundary and the 4,835 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sumner 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 — Sumner 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 Sumner's 4,835 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 Sumner's 4,835 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sumner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,835 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Sumner-wide figureread your own land →
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