Swede Heaven, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Swede Heaven, 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 Swede Heaven 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 Swede Heaven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Swede Heaven — the short answer
Swede Heaven, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 8b is Swede Heaven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Swede Heaven's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Swede Heaven
Each reading below is measured for Swede Heaven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSwede Heaven runs about 254 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
MeasuredSwede Heaven 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 Swede Heaven is in
Swede Heaven sits in the North Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Swede Heaven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Snohomish County.
What Grows in Swede Heaven
Every plant below cleared Swede Heaven's own zone 8b and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Swede Heaven?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Swede Heaven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Swede Heaven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITE HORSE SHELL & FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 32N/08E-02L01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- White Horse ProspectMining · 2.9 mi
- Larson ProspectMining · 3.0 mi
- LarsonMining · 3.2 mi
- Feldt ProspectMining · 3.3 mi
- FeldtMining · 3.4 mi
- Sunrise ProspectMining · 3.5 mi
- SunriseMining · 3.5 mi
- 32N/09E-15G03Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- Gray Mare ProspectMining · 3.9 mi
- Gray MareMining · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Swede Heaven'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 Swede Heaven.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Swede Heaven
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Swede Heaven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Swede Heaven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Swede Heaven, Mining runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Swede Heaven. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Swede Heaven
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 Swede Heaven average
Your land is one point inside Swede Heaven
Everything above resolves to Swede Heaven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Swede Heaven Average
Swede Heaven Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Swede Heaven
- ●One soil character for all of Swede Heaven
- ●Frost dates read at Swede Heaven's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Swede Heaven's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Swede Heaven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Swede Heaven, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Swede Heaven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Swede Heaven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swede Heaven average
How we know this about Swede Heaven
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 Swede Heaven’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 Swede Heaven
When does frost risk typically end in Swede Heaven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Swede Heaven typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Swede Heaven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Swede Heaven typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Swede Heaven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Swede Heaven sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 6, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Swede Heaven?
The federal record around Swede Heaven shows 79 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Swede Heaven?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Swede Heaven's scale — its 8b band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Swede Heaven'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 Swede Heaven’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Swede Heaven's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,596 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Swede Heaven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Swede Heaven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 20 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Swede Heaven, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Swede Heaven's boundary and the 4,596 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Swede Heaven's own centroid, the North CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Swede Heaven's 4,596 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Snohomish County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Snohomish 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 Snohomish County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Swede Heaven's 4,596 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Swede Heaven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,596 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Swede Heaven-wide figureread your own land →
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