Tampico, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Tampico, 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 Tampico 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 Tampico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tampico — the short answer
Tampico, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7a is Tampico's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tampico's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tampico
Each reading below is measured for Tampico itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTampico runs about 195 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTampico sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Tampico is in
Tampico sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tampico's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yakima County.
What Grows in Tampico
Every plant below cleared Tampico's own zone 7a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tampico?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Tampico
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tampico. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TAMPICO GENERAL MERCHANDISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- YAKIMA COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT NO 12 NORTH FORKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AHTANUM WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 12N/16E-17J01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- UNION GAP WATERPFAS · 3.1 mi
- 12N/16E-13D01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 12N/17E-16D03Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- MOUNTAINVIEW ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- 12N/17E-16R01Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- NOB HILL WATER ASSOCIATIONPFAS · 8.6 mi
- YAKIMA WATER DIVISION CITY OFPFAS · 8.6 mi
- GROMORE TRADING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
Measured from Tampico'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 Tampico.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Tampico
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tampico
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tampico
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Tampico
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 Tampico average
Your land is one point inside Tampico
Everything above resolves to Tampico as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Tampico Average
Tampico Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tampico
- ●One soil character for all of Tampico
- ●Frost dates read at Tampico's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tampico's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tampico
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tampico, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tampico averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tampico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tampico average
How we know this about Tampico
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 Tampico’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 Tampico
When does frost risk typically end in Tampico?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tampico typically lands around Apr 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in Tampico?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tampico typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tampico?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tampico sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 9, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tampico?
The federal record around Tampico shows 16 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Tampico?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tampico's scale — its 7a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tampico'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 Tampico’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tampico's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,645 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tampico's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tampico's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tampico, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tampico's boundary and the 2,645 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tampico's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tampico's 2,645 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yakima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yakima 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 Yakima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tampico's 2,645 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tampico you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,645 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 Tampico-wide figureread your own land →