Touchet, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Touchet, 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 Touchet 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 Touchet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Touchet — the short answer
Touchet, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 778 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 778 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 Touchet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Touchet's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Touchet
Each reading below is measured for Touchet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTouchet runs about 205 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
MeasuredTouchet 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 Touchet is in
Touchet sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Touchet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Walla Walla County.
What Grows in Touchet
Every plant below cleared Touchet's own zone 7a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Touchet?
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 Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Touchet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Touchet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOUCHET CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TOUCHET COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 07N/33E-34P02Nitrate · 1400 ft
- SHORT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KURT A BALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 07N/33E-34P03Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- MCGREGOR CO TOUCHETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TOUCHET SECTION TOOL HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PALMER FEEDLOTCAFO · 5.7 mi
- WILLIAMS DAIRY HEIFER RAISINGCAFO · 5.7 mi
- R A BAUMANNUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- HELLBERG FEEDLOTCAFO · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Touchet'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 Touchet.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of Touchet
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Touchet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Touchet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Touchet, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Touchet. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Touchet
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 Touchet average
Your land is one point inside Touchet
Everything above resolves to Touchet as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 778 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 Touchet Average
Touchet Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Touchet
- ●One soil character for all of Touchet
- ●Frost dates read at Touchet's scale: Mar 28 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Touchet's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Touchet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Touchet, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Touchet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Touchet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Touchet average
How we know this about Touchet
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 Touchet’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 Touchet
When does frost risk typically end in Touchet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Touchet typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Touchet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Touchet typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Touchet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Touchet sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 5, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Touchet?
The federal record around Touchet is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Touchet?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Touchet's scale — its 7a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Touchet'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 Touchet’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Touchet's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 778 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Touchet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Touchet's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Oct 19 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Touchet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Touchet's boundary and the 778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Touchet's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Touchet's 778 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Walla Walla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Walla Walla 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 Walla Walla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Touchet's 778 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Touchet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 778 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Touchet-wide figureread your own land →