Valley, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Valley, 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 Valley 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 Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valley — the short answer
Valley, Washington: USDA zone 6a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 274 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 274 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 6a is Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley
Each reading below is measured for Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValley runs about 171 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
MeasuredValley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Valley is in
Valley sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stevens County.
What Grows in Valley
Every plant below cleared Valley's own zone 6a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALLEY FUEL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HEMPHILL BROS LANE MT SILICA COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NANOME AGGREGATES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VALLEY WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ValleyMining · 1.7 mi
- Inklers PointMining · 2.1 mi
- STEVENS CO PUD - VALLEYPFAS · 2.7 mi
- Peter Clair ProspectMining · 3.2 mi
- WA DOT LOON LAKE VALLEY MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- W D Smith HomesteadMining · 3.4 mi
- DAWSON TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Cleveland MineMining · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley'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 Valley.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Valley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley, Mining runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Valley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Valley
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 Valley average
Your land is one point inside Valley
Everything above resolves to Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 274 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 Valley Average
Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Valley's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley average
How we know this about Valley
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 Valley’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 Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 28, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley?
The federal record around Valley runs heavier than most — 120 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Valley?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley's scale — its 6a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley'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 Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valley's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 274 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 12 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley's boundary and the 274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley's 274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stevens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stevens 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 Stevens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley's 274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 274 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Valley-wide figureread your own land →