Home Maintenance Monday 4/28/25: Start Your Plantings!
Here in the Willamette Valley, we have finally made it past the last major danger of frost in our area! You know what that means: it is OFFICIALLY time to start planting things! (If planting things is your thing, that is.)
Whether you've been excited to see all the varieties of flowers that suddenly become available this time of year, or if you just can't wait to get your veggie garden going, the wait is over! So, if you're in the Willamette Valley, NOW is a good time to plant any annuals or perennials that you would typically worry about being affected by cold weather.
I've been playing around with a "First and Last Frost Dates by Zip Code" tool that I found at: www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates - and I've been looking up all the little towns along the Willamette River that I have lived or worked in and checking their (first and) last frost dates to make sure we're all clear before I sound the start of the planting race.
What's always the MOST fascinating to me is all the little microclimates we have even just here in the valley! My family has moved up and down the valley over the last 20 years and even spent a year in Washington! So I've been made KEENLY aware of the less than subtle seasonal differences as your drive North and South on I5, but it is amazing how much variety we can see in little pockets just within the the valley! When we were living in Corvallis in 2014 we had a late April snowstorm that no one else in the valley seemed to see at all. My Mom and sister who were living in Salem at the time couldn't believe we had over a foot of snow on the ground! (I think we had MUCH more than that, I just can’t find the pictures right now!) At that time we just looked at the topography of our region and it made sense given that Corvallis is getting closer to the Coastal Range and so near to Mary's Peak, the highest peak in the Coastal Range. I also believe that the Corvallis-Newport Hwy may be the lowest pass over the same range and sometimes the wind seems to pick up going through there and head straight for Corvallis. (And straight through your bones!) Lebanon and Corvallis are LESS than 20 miles away from each other on the map and essentially occupy the same latitudinal space, but Lebanon last frost date was on March 25th and Corvallis didn't pass theirs until just yesterday on April 27th! Which only makes me think of that late April snowstorm we saw in 2014, at least the data confirms the situation out there!
Above: An image captured from Google maps showing the distance from Corvallis to Lebanon. Below: Some raw data comparing showing these two cities altitudes, first and last frost dates. (Altitude is definitely a factor for those other data points!)
How does this apply to real estate? If you're a gardener who has a hard time waiting for that last frost date, THIS could be a factor in your next move! Let me know the frost dates that you're looking for and I'll be happy to help you see what we can find! 🤣 In all seriousness though, I said that you could be planting things right now, what are you still doing here? Go boost your curb appeal with some pretty petals and enjoy some sunshine!
Hands in soil and transplants!
Resources:
"First and Last Frost Dates by Zip Code" website resource found at: www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates