Wilderness Rim, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wilderness Rim, 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 Wilderness Rim 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 Wilderness Rim — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilderness Rim — the short answer
Wilderness Rim, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 398 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 8b is Wilderness Rim's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilderness Rim's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilderness Rim
Each reading below is measured for Wilderness Rim itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilderness Rim runs about 269 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredWilderness Rim 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 Wilderness Rim is in
Wilderness Rim sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Wilderness Rim's own centroid rather than borrowed from King County.
What Grows in Wilderness Rim
Every plant below cleared Wilderness Rim's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilderness Rim?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Wilderness Rim
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilderness Rim. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CEDAR FALLS DROP BOX SITEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CEDAR FALLS HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CEDAR FALLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CASCADE GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 23N/08E-15P02Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- IRON HORSE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SEATTLE PUBLIC UTILITIES WATERSHED MGMNTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- CEDAR FALLS POWER PLANTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- PUGET SOUND POWER & LIGHT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MC ANDERSON TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WA WSP RATTLESNAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TANNER ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilderness Rim'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 Wilderness Rim.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Wilderness Rim
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilderness Rim
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilderness Rim
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilderness Rim, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilderness Rim — PFAS (3 sites) and Mining (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
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 irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Wilderness Rim
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 Wilderness Rim average
Your land is one point inside Wilderness Rim
Everything above resolves to Wilderness Rim as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Wilderness Rim Average
Wilderness Rim Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wilderness Rim
- ●One soil character for all of Wilderness Rim
- ●Frost dates read at Wilderness Rim's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilderness Rim's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilderness Rim
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilderness Rim, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilderness Rim averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilderness Rim — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilderness Rim average
How we know this about Wilderness Rim
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 Wilderness Rim’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 Wilderness Rim
When does frost risk typically end in Wilderness Rim?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilderness Rim typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Wilderness Rim?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilderness Rim 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 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilderness Rim?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilderness Rim sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 9, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilderness Rim?
The federal record around Wilderness Rim is a meaningful one — 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Wilderness Rim?
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 Wilderness Rim's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilderness Rim'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 Wilderness Rim’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilderness Rim's own scale — its own ~269-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilderness Rim's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilderness Rim's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 27 and Nov 23 and the ~269-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilderness Rim, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilderness Rim's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilderness Rim's own centroid, the Puget LowlandUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilderness Rim's 398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom King County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom King 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 King County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilderness Rim's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilderness Rim you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Wilderness Rim-wide figureread your own land →
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