Wilkeson, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wilkeson, 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 Wilkeson 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 Wilkeson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilkeson — the short answer
Wilkeson, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 298 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 298 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 Wilkeson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilkeson's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilkeson
Each reading below is measured for Wilkeson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilkeson runs about 255 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
MeasuredWilkeson 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 Wilkeson is in
Wilkeson sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Wilkeson'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 Wilkeson
Every plant below cleared Wilkeson's own zone 8b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilkeson?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Wilkeson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilkeson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILKESON CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SUNSET LAKE CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHUCK'S SERVICE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TURNA, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BURNETT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 25N/06E-19H02Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- ARNOLD'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 18N/04E-10Q01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- BUCKLEY WATERPFAS · 3.6 mi
- WALT AND VERNS PICKUP PARTSBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- 1ST CHOICE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- BUCKLEY 76Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilkeson'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 Wilkeson.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of Wilkeson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilkeson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilkeson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilkeson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilkeson — CAFO (9 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wilkeson
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 Wilkeson average
Your land is one point inside Wilkeson
Everything above resolves to Wilkeson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 298 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 Wilkeson Average
Wilkeson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wilkeson
- ●One soil character for all of Wilkeson
- ●Frost dates read at Wilkeson's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilkeson's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilkeson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilkeson, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilkeson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilkeson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilkeson average
How we know this about Wilkeson
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 Wilkeson’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 Wilkeson
When does frost risk typically end in Wilkeson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilkeson typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Wilkeson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilkeson typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilkeson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilkeson sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 5, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilkeson?
The federal record around Wilkeson is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wilkeson?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilkeson's scale — its 8b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilkeson'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 Wilkeson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilkeson's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 298 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilkeson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilkeson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 19 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilkeson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilkeson's boundary and the 298 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wilkeson sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilkeson's 298 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 Wilkeson's 298 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilkeson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 298 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wilkeson-wide figureread your own land →
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