Tekoa, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Tekoa, 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 Tekoa 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 Tekoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tekoa — the short answer
Tekoa, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 785 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 785 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 6b is Tekoa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tekoa's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tekoa
Each reading below is measured for Tekoa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTekoa runs about 173 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
MeasuredTekoa sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Tekoa is in
Tekoa sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tekoa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whitman County.
What Grows in Tekoa
Every plant below cleared Tekoa's own zone 6b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tekoa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Tekoa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tekoa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DORSEY CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GARDNER AND SMITH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WILBUR ELLIS CO TEKOABrownfields · 500 ft
- PRAIRIE GRAIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BUSCH DISTRIBUTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TEKOA CENTRAL OFFICE 4680-BO1Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WASHINGTON WATER POWER CO TEKOAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TEKOA SCHOOL DISTRICT NO 265Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CASH HARDWARE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NICKS TIRE AND SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TEKOA WA0290/TEKOWAQ4290/PCSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 45N 05W 29BBB1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tekoa'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 Tekoa.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Tekoa
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tekoa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tekoa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tekoa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Tekoa. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tekoa
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 Tekoa average
Your land is one point inside Tekoa
Everything above resolves to Tekoa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 785 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 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 Tekoa Average
Tekoa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tekoa
- ●One soil character for all of Tekoa
- ●Frost dates read at Tekoa's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tekoa's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tekoa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tekoa, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tekoa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tekoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tekoa average
How we know this about Tekoa
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 Tekoa’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 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 Tekoa
When does frost risk typically end in Tekoa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tekoa typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Tekoa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tekoa typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tekoa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tekoa sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 27, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tekoa?
The federal record around Tekoa shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tekoa?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tekoa's scale — its 6b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tekoa'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 Tekoa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tekoa's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 785 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tekoa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tekoa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 11 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tekoa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tekoa's boundary and the 785 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tekoa's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tekoa's 785 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whitman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whitman 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 Whitman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tekoa's 785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tekoa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 785 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tekoa-wide figureread your own land →