Vader, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vader, 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 Vader 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 Vader — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vader — the short answer
Vader, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 595 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- Lewis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- Lewis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- Lewis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 595 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 Lewis County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Vader's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vader's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vader
Each reading below is measured for Vader itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVader runs about 243 days between hard freezes (read from Lewis County, the closest normal to Vader) — 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
MeasuredVader sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Vader is in
Vader sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Vader's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lewis County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vader
Every plant below cleared Vader's own zone 8b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vader?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Vader
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vader. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LITTLE FALLS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 11N/02W-32C01Nitrate · 2500 ft
- MOUNT ST HELENS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PURSLEY FAMILY TREE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GEE CEE'S TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- EXIT 57 TRUCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ESTES RV PARK & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BETTER WEIGH MFGBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- VADER SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 11N/02W-09P02Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- GLENN BEANUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- EXIT 59 CHEVRON LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vader'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 Vader.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Vader
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vader
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vader
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vader, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Vader. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Vader
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 Vader average
Your land is one point inside Vader
Everything above resolves to Vader as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 595 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lewis County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Vader Average
Vader Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Vader
- ●One soil character for all of Vader
- ●Frost dates read at Vader's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vader's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vader
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vader, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vader averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vader — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vader average
How we know this about Vader
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 Lewis 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 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 Vader
When does frost risk typically end in Vader?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vader typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Vader?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vader typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vader?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vader sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 6, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vader?
The federal record around Vader shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Vader?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vader's scale — its 8b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vader'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 Vader’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Vader's own scale — the 595 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vader's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vader, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vader's boundary and the 595 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vader sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Vader has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lewis County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vader's 595 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vader's 595 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vader you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 595 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 Vader-wide figureread your own land →
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