Warden, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Warden, 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 Warden 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 Warden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Warden — the short answer
Warden, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Warden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warden's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warden
Each reading below is measured for Warden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarden runs about 206 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
MeasuredWarden 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 Warden is in
Warden sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Warden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Warden
Every plant below cleared Warden's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Warden?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Warden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAMB WESTON BSWToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- WARDEN CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CORNER PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COLEMAN OIL COMPANY 338Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WASHINGTON POTATO COMPANYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SIMPLOT SOILBUILDERS WARDENBrownfields · 2100 ft
- PACIFIC COAST CANOLABrownfields · 2300 ft
- TERRY KILMER CROPDUSTING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WARDEN SCHOOL DISTRICT 146-161Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PACIFIC WESTERN TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LYMAN MURDOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CENEX HARVEST STATES COOPERATIVESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warden'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 Warden.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Warden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Warden — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Warden
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 Warden average
Your land is one point inside Warden
Everything above resolves to Warden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Warden Average
Warden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Warden
- ●One soil character for all of Warden
- ●Frost dates read at Warden's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warden's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warden, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warden average
How we know this about Warden
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 Warden’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 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 Warden
When does frost risk typically end in Warden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warden typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Warden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warden typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warden sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warden?
The federal record around Warden is a meaningful one — 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Warden?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Warden's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warden'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 Warden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Warden's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,912 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warden, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warden's boundary and the 1,912 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Warden's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Warden's 1,912 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warden's 1,912 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,912 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Warden-wide figureread your own land →
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