Washougal, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Washougal, 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 Washougal 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 Washougal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Washougal — the short answer
Washougal, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- Clark County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Clark County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Washougal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Washougal's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Washougal
Each reading below is measured for Washougal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWashougal runs about 217 days between hard freezes (read from Clark County, the closest normal to Washougal) — 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
MeasuredWashougal 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 Washougal is in
Washougal sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Washougal's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Washougal
Plants matched to Washougal'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 Washougal?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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.
Documented around Washougal
Survey cells within 31 miles of Washougal checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 541 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Washougal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Washougal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOB RICHARDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WILLIAM H NEDER EXXON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Anderson EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TOTEM RENT ALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WASHOUGAL LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WASHOUGAL CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- R JAMES VAN DE VENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GEORGE SCHMID & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- RD WAKEFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WASHOUGAL GENERATOR HUT 3500-B1BUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- S & S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- COLLINS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Washougal'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 Washougal.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Washougal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Washougal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Washougal, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Washougal — Superfund (20 sites) and PFAS (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Washougal
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 Washougal average
Your land is one point inside Washougal
Everything above resolves to Washougal as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clark 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 Washougal Average
Washougal Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Washougal
- ●One soil character for all of Washougal
- ●Frost dates read at Washougal's scale: Mar 28 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Washougal's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Washougal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Washougal, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Washougal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Washougal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Washougal average
How we know this about Washougal
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 Clark 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 Washougal
When does frost risk typically end in Washougal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Washougal typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Washougal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Washougal typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Washougal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Washougal sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 17, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Washougal?
The federal record around Washougal is a meaningful one — 844 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (426), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Washougal?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Washougal's scale — its 9a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Washougal'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 Washougal’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Washougal's own scale — the 3,809 acres it covers and 844 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Washougal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 844 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Washougal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Washougal's boundary and the 3,809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Washougal's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Washougal checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Washougal has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clark County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Washougal's 3,809 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark 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 Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Washougal's 3,809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Washougal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,809 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 Washougal-wide figureread your own land →