Thorp, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Thorp, 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 Thorp 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 Thorp — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Thorp — the short answer
Thorp, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 781 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 781 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 Thorp's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Thorp's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Thorp
Each reading below is measured for Thorp itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThorp runs about 190 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
MeasuredThorp 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 Thorp is in
Thorp sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Thorp's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kittitas County.
What Grows in Thorp
Every plant below cleared Thorp's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Thorp?
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 Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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 Thorp
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Thorp. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 18N/17E-12M01 PAS23Nitrate · 1900 ft
- THORP SCHOOL DISTRICT 400Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- KITTITAS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BINGO FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- THORP FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Negro Creek IronMining · 3.6 mi
- 18N/18E-32D01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- STATE OF WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- ELLENSBURG REPEATER 070102Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- LOVES TRAVEL STOP 413Brownfields · 5.6 mi
- LOVE'S TRAVEL STOP #413Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- SMITTYS ELLENSBURG 6225Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Thorp'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 Thorp.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Thorp
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Thorp
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Thorp
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Thorp, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Thorp. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Thorp
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 Thorp average
Your land is one point inside Thorp
Everything above resolves to Thorp as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 781 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 Thorp Average
Thorp Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Thorp
- ●One soil character for all of Thorp
- ●Frost dates read at Thorp's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Thorp's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Thorp
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Thorp, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Thorp averages can't show:
We read public map data around Thorp — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Thorp average
How we know this about Thorp
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 Thorp’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 Thorp
When does frost risk typically end in Thorp?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Thorp typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Thorp?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Thorp 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Thorp?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Thorp sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 9, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Thorp?
The federal record around Thorp shows 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Nitrate 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 Thorp?
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 Thorp's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Thorp'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 Thorp’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Thorp's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 781 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Thorp's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Thorp's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 23 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Thorp, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Thorp's boundary and the 781 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Thorp's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Thorp's 781 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kittitas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kittitas 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 Kittitas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Thorp's 781 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Thorp you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 781 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Thorp-wide figureread your own land →
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