Tieton, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Tieton, 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 Tieton 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 Tieton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tieton — the short answer
Tieton, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 553 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 553 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 Tieton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tieton's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tieton
Each reading below is measured for Tieton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTieton runs about 209 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
MeasuredTieton 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 Tieton is in
Tieton sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tieton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yakima County.
What Grows in Tieton
Every plant below cleared Tieton's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tieton?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Tieton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tieton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNOKIST TIETONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- KELLER FRUIT & COLD STORAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Mighty TietonUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- JULIE ANN BOSMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FRENCH FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAYMAN LUMBER COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SCHWARTZE RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- PACIFIC POWER & LIGHT NACHESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- JAMES G LAYMAN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HIGHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT 203Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- BOISE CASCADE LOGGING OFFICE NACHESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- EVANS FRUITUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tieton'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 Tieton.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Tieton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tieton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tieton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tieton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tieton — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (48 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Tieton
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 Tieton average
Your land is one point inside Tieton
Everything above resolves to Tieton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 553 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 Tieton Average
Tieton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tieton
- ●One soil character for all of Tieton
- ●Frost dates read at Tieton's scale: Mar 31 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tieton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tieton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tieton, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tieton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tieton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tieton average
How we know this about Tieton
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 Tieton’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 Tieton
When does frost risk typically end in Tieton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tieton typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Tieton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tieton typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tieton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tieton sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 12, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tieton?
The federal record around Tieton is a meaningful one — 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tieton?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tieton's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tieton'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 Tieton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tieton's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 553 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tieton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tieton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Oct 26 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tieton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tieton's boundary and the 553 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tieton's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tieton's 553 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 Tieton's 553 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tieton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 553 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 Tieton-wide figureread your own land →