Candlewood Shores, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, 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 Candlewood Shores, 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 Candlewood Shores 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 Candlewood Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Candlewood Shores — the short answer
Candlewood Shores, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 148 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 148 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 6b is Candlewood Shores's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Candlewood Shores's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Candlewood Shores
Each reading below is measured for Candlewood Shores itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCandlewood Shores runs about 193 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCandlewood Shores sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Candlewood Shores is in
Candlewood Shores sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Candlewood Shores's own centroid rather than borrowed from Western Connecticut Planning Region.
What Grows in Candlewood Shores
Every plant below cleared Candlewood Shores's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Candlewood Shores?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Candlewood Shores
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Candlewood Shores, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Candlewood Shores
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Candlewood Shores. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOKFIELD BAY MARINABrownfields · 1600 ft
- CT-BD 12Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CT-BD 11Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CT-BD 6Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- MARDEN ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT, LLCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ELIZABETH GOLDMANBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- WHITES APPLIANCESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BROOKFIELD HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- M&G CLEANERS (FORMER)Superfund · 1.5 mi
- PLAZA CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BROOKFIELD SHELL FACILITY 100065Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TUCK A J COBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Candlewood Shores'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 Candlewood Shores.
Total Sites
1,072
within ~10 miles of Candlewood Shores
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Candlewood Shores
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Candlewood Shores
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Candlewood Shores, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Candlewood Shores. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Candlewood Shores
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 Candlewood Shores average
Your land is one point inside Candlewood Shores
Everything above resolves to Candlewood Shores as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 148 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 Candlewood Shores Average
Candlewood Shores Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Candlewood Shores
- ●One soil character for all of Candlewood Shores
- ●Frost dates read at Candlewood Shores's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Candlewood Shores's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Candlewood Shores
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Candlewood Shores, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Candlewood Shores averages can't show:
We read public map data around Candlewood Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Candlewood Shores average
How we know this about Candlewood Shores
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 Candlewood Shores’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 Candlewood Shores
When does frost risk typically end in Candlewood Shores?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Candlewood Shores typically lands around Apr 16, 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 May 7.
When is the first frost in Candlewood Shores?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Candlewood Shores typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Candlewood Shores?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Candlewood Shores sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 12, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Candlewood Shores?
The federal record around Candlewood Shores is a meaningful one — 1,072 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (500), the nearest Brownfields 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 Candlewood Shores?
From about Sep 26 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Candlewood Shores's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Candlewood Shores'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 Candlewood Shores’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Candlewood Shores's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 148 acres it covers and 1,072 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Candlewood Shores's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Candlewood Shores's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 26 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,072 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Candlewood Shores, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Candlewood Shores's boundary and the 148 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Candlewood Shores's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Candlewood Shoreslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Candlewood Shores's 148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Western Connecticut County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Western Connecticut County
- The growing challenges every Connecticut grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Connecticut
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Western Connecticut County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Candlewood Shores's 148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Candlewood Shores you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 148 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Candlewood Shores-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutCandlewood Shores sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides