Moodus, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Moodus, 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 Moodus 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 Moodus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moodus — the short answer
Moodus, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Moodus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moodus's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moodus
Each reading below is measured for Moodus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoodus runs about 201 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
MeasuredMoodus 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 Moodus is in
Moodus sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moodus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region.
What Grows in Moodus
Every plant below cleared Moodus's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moodus?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Moodus
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Moodus, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Moodus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moodus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BERTS CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CT-EHD 321Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MAUS & SON, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #32526Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN INC 32526Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- MOODUS CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 137 LEESVILLE RD.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JOHNSONVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CASHMANS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #660Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ELM CAMP CO, INC. dba SUNRISE RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Former Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moodus'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 Moodus.
Total Sites
426
within ~10 miles of Moodus
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moodus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moodus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moodus, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Moodus — Mining (24 sites) and Nitrate (112 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Moodus
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 Moodus average
Your land is one point inside Moodus
Everything above resolves to Moodus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Moodus Average
Moodus Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Moodus
- ●One soil character for all of Moodus
- ●Frost dates read at Moodus's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moodus's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moodus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moodus, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moodus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moodus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moodus average
How we know this about Moodus
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 Moodus’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 Moodus
When does frost risk typically end in Moodus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moodus typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Moodus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moodus typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moodus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moodus sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moodus?
The federal record around Moodus is a meaningful one — 426 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (168), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Moodus?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moodus's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moodus'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 Moodus’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Moodus's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,155 acres it covers and 426 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moodus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moodus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 29 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 426 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moodus, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moodus's boundary and the 2,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moodus's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mooduslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moodus's 2,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lower Connecticut River Valley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lower Connecticut River Valley 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 Lower Connecticut River Valley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moodus's 2,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moodus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Moodus-wide figureread your own land →