Woodland, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Woodland, 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 Woodland 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 Woodland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodland — the short answer
Woodland, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Cowlitz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Cowlitz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- Cowlitz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Cowlitz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Woodland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodland's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodland
Each reading below is measured for Woodland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWoodland runs about 251 days between hard freezes (read from Cowlitz County, the closest normal to Woodland) — 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
MeasuredWoodland 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 Woodland is in
Woodland sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Woodland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cowlitz County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Woodland
Every plant below cleared Woodland's own zone 8b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodland?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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.
Documented around Woodland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Woodland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 565 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woodland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOE J ZUMSTEIN JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GROAT BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LIFEPORT INTERIORSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- HAYES CABINETSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- STELLAR J CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SAFEWAY 1762Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- GLACIER NW WOODLANDToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- TRUCK SHOPS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WOODLAND PACIFIC PRIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COCA COLA BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BEN THOMAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORTHWOOD CABINETS INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodland'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 Woodland.
Total Sites
256
within ~10 miles of Woodland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woodland — Superfund (8 sites) and PFAS (3 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 Woodland
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 Woodland average
Your land is one point inside Woodland
Everything above resolves to Woodland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cowlitz 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 Woodland Average
Woodland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Woodland
- ●One soil character for all of Woodland
- ●Frost dates read at Woodland's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodland's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodland, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodland average
How we know this about Woodland
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 Cowlitz 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 Woodland
When does frost risk typically end in Woodland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodland typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Woodland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodland 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 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodland sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 5, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodland?
The federal record around Woodland is a meaningful one — 256 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), 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 Woodland?
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 Woodland's scale — its 8b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodland'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 Woodland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woodland's own scale — the 2,632 acres it covers and 256 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 256 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodland's boundary and the 2,632 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Woodland sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Woodland checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Woodland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cowlitz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodland's 2,632 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cowlitz County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cowlitz 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 Cowlitz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodland's 2,632 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,632 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 Woodland-wide figureread your own land →