Falls Village, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Falls Village, 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 Falls Village 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 Falls Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Falls Village — the short answer
Falls Village, Connecticut: USDA zone 6a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Falls Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Falls Village's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Falls Village
Each reading below is measured for Falls Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFalls Village runs about 178 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
MeasuredFalls Village sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Falls Village is in
Falls Village sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Falls Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northwest Hills Planning Region.
What Grows in Falls Village
Every plant below cleared Falls Village's own zone 6a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Falls Village?
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 Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Falls Village
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Falls Village, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Falls Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Falls Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CT-CN 20Nitrate · 100 ft
- WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CLEAN HARBORSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CARE ENVBrownfields · 2500 ft
- FALLS VILLAGE PUBLIC WORKS GARAGEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- FIRSTLIGHT - FALLS VILLAGE STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CT-CN 16Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CT-CN 31Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CT-CN 14Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- BERKSHIRE CONSTRUCTION CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JACOBS GARAGE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JASMINE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Falls Village'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 Falls Village.
Total Sites
316
within ~10 miles of Falls Village
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Falls Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Falls Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Falls Village, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 130 sites within ~10 miles of Falls Village. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Falls Village
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 Falls Village average
Your land is one point inside Falls Village
Everything above resolves to Falls Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Falls Village Average
Falls Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Falls Village
- ●One soil character for all of Falls Village
- ●Frost dates read at Falls Village's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Falls Village's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Falls Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Falls Village, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Falls Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Falls Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Falls Village average
How we know this about Falls Village
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 Falls Village’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 Falls Village
When does frost risk typically end in Falls Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Falls Village typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Falls Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Falls Village typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Falls Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Falls Village sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 6, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Falls Village?
The federal record around Falls Village is a meaningful one — 316 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Falls Village?
From about Sep 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 Oct 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Falls Village's scale — its 6a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Falls Village'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 Falls Village’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Falls Village's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,021 acres it covers and 316 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Falls Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Falls Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 20 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 316 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Falls Village, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Falls Village's boundary and the 1,021 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Falls Village's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Falls Villagelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Falls Village's 1,021 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northwest Hills County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northwest Hills 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 Northwest Hills County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Falls Village's 1,021 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Falls Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,021 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Falls Village-wide figureread your own land →