Vaughn, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Vaughn, 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 Vaughn 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 Vaughn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vaughn — the short answer
Vaughn, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Pierce County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Vaughn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vaughn's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vaughn
Each reading below is measured for Vaughn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVaughn runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pierce County, the closest normal to Vaughn) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVaughn 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 Vaughn is in
Vaughn sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Vaughn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vaughn
Every plant below cleared Vaughn's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vaughn?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Vaughn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vaughn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21N/01W-02C01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- FRIENDLY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FIRE DIST #16 PIERCE COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KEY CENTER SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- GLEN COVE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PENROSE POINT STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FAIR HARBOR MARINE AND RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- STAN'S AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE/ALLYN AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- APARTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT 5 MASON COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BEN'S DELI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- RONALD A GRIFFEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vaughn'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 Vaughn.
Total Sites
212
within ~10 miles of Vaughn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vaughn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vaughn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vaughn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vaughn — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (131 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Vaughn
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 Vaughn average
Your land is one point inside Vaughn
Everything above resolves to Vaughn as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pierce 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 Vaughn Average
Vaughn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Vaughn
- ●One soil character for all of Vaughn
- ●Frost dates read at Vaughn's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vaughn's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vaughn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vaughn, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vaughn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vaughn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vaughn average
How we know this about Vaughn
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 Pierce 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 Vaughn
When does frost risk typically end in Vaughn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vaughn typically lands around Mar 4, 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 Mar 25.
When is the first frost in Vaughn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vaughn typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vaughn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vaughn sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 9, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vaughn?
The federal record around Vaughn is a meaningful one — 212 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Vaughn?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vaughn's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vaughn'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 Vaughn’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Vaughn's own scale — the 1,501 acres it covers and 212 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vaughn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 212 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vaughn, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vaughn's boundary and the 1,501 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vaughn 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 — Vaughn has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pierce County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vaughn's 1,501 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vaughn's 1,501 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vaughn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,501 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Vaughn-wide figureread your own land →
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