Wenatchee, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Wenatchee, 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 Wenatchee 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 Wenatchee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wenatchee — the short answer
Wenatchee, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Wenatchee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wenatchee's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wenatchee
Each reading below is measured for Wenatchee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWenatchee runs about 229 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
MeasuredWenatchee 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 Wenatchee is in
Wenatchee sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Wenatchee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chelan County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Wenatchee
Every plant below cleared Wenatchee's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wenatchee?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Wenatchee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wenatchee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TARGET STORE 1064Brownfields · 500 ft
- SILVER EAGLE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VAN WELL NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 2301-20469KUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MAID O'CLOVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WALGREENS 2670Brownfields · 1100 ft
- DON SANGSTER MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- N MILLER 76 2742Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOE WELTY FORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HAGGEN OPCO NORTH LLC WENATCHEEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- RONS VALLEY NORTH SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SPARKLE CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wenatchee'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 Wenatchee.
Total Sites
325
within ~10 miles of Wenatchee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wenatchee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wenatchee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wenatchee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wenatchee — Underground Storage Tanks (238 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wenatchee
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 Wenatchee average
Your land is one point inside Wenatchee
Everything above resolves to Wenatchee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Wenatchee Average
Wenatchee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wenatchee
- ●One soil character for all of Wenatchee
- ●Frost dates read at Wenatchee's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wenatchee's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wenatchee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wenatchee, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wenatchee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wenatchee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wenatchee average
How we know this about Wenatchee
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 Wenatchee’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 Wenatchee
When does frost risk typically end in Wenatchee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wenatchee typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Wenatchee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wenatchee typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wenatchee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wenatchee sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 21, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wenatchee?
The federal record around Wenatchee is a meaningful one — 325 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (238), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wenatchee?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wenatchee's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wenatchee'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 Wenatchee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wenatchee's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,809 acres it covers and 325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wenatchee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wenatchee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 4 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wenatchee, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wenatchee's boundary and the 6,809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wenatchee sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wenatchee's 6,809 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chelan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chelan 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 Chelan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wenatchee's 6,809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wenatchee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,809 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wenatchee-wide figureread your own land →