Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Union Hill-Novelty Hill, 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Union Hill-Novelty Hill — the short answer
Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- King County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 16K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are King County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Union Hill-Novelty Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union Hill-Novelty Hill's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Each reading below is measured for Union Hill-Novelty Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUnion Hill-Novelty Hill runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from King County, the closest normal to Union Hill-Novelty Hill) — 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
MeasuredUnion Hill-Novelty Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill is in
Union Hill-Novelty Hill sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Union Hill-Novelty Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Plants matched to Union Hill-Novelty Hill's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Union Hill-Novelty Hill?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union Hill-Novelty Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRIUMPH AEROSPACE SYSTEMS SEATTLEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SPACEX SITE 1Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- SPACEX SITE 4Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- REDMOND WATER SYSTEM CITY OFPFAS · 1.0 mi
- UNION HILL WATER ASSOCIATION INCPFAS · 1.0 mi
- J POD JUST EVOTEC BIOLOGICSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CICOIL REDMONDBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES 2Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- QFC 878 705Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- KEEP IT CLEAN RECYCLING AND EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- REDMOND RIDGE FOODMART & CARWASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union Hill-Novelty Hill'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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill.
Total Sites
1,115
within ~10 miles of Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of Union Hill-Novelty Hill. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Union Hill-Novelty Hill
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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill average
Your land is one point inside Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Everything above resolves to Union Hill-Novelty Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from King County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill Average
Union Hill-Novelty Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Union Hill-Novelty Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Union Hill-Novelty Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Union Hill-Novelty Hill's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union Hill-Novelty Hill's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union Hill-Novelty Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union Hill-Novelty Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union Hill-Novelty Hill average
How we know this about Union Hill-Novelty Hill
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 King County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Union Hill-Novelty Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union Hill-Novelty Hill typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Union Hill-Novelty Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union Hill-Novelty Hill typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union Hill-Novelty Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union Hill-Novelty Hill sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union Hill-Novelty Hill?
The federal record around Union Hill-Novelty Hill is a meaningful one — 1,115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (609), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill?
From about Oct 22 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 Nov 21 (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 Nov 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union Hill-Novelty Hill's scale — its 9a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union Hill-Novelty Hill'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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Union Hill-Novelty Hill's own scale — the 15,516 acres it covers and 1,115 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union Hill-Novelty Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union Hill-Novelty Hill, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union Hill-Novelty Hill's boundary and the 15,516 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Union Hill-Novelty Hill's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Union Hill-Novelty Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom King County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Union Hill-Novelty Hill's 15,516 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King County
- The candidate plant list — Washington's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Washington
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union Hill-Novelty Hill's 15,516 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union Hill-Novelty Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,516 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Union Hill-Novelty Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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