Mystic, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mystic, 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 Mystic 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 Mystic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mystic — the short answer
Mystic, Connecticut: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- 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 7a is Mystic's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mystic's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mystic
Each reading below is measured for Mystic itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMystic runs about 227 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
MeasuredMystic sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Mystic is in
Mystic sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mystic's own centroid rather than borrowed from Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region.
What Grows in Mystic
Every plant below cleared Mystic's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mystic?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Mystic
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Mystic, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mystic
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mystic. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PKL VENTURES, LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Mystic Shipyard, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GROSSMANS FISH MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MYSTIC POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SAINT EDMOND'S NOVITIATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MYSTIC C.O. #7131Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- M.G. AUTO INC. dba BROADWAY AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TWENTY-THIRD PUBLICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MYSTIC SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SEAPORT SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MYSTIC HENNY PENNYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MASONS ISLAND RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mystic'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 Mystic.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mystic
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mystic
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mystic, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Mystic. 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 Mystic
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 Mystic average
Your land is one point inside Mystic
Everything above resolves to Mystic 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 Mystic Average
Mystic Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mystic
- ●One soil character for all of Mystic
- ●Frost dates read at Mystic's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mystic's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mystic
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mystic, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mystic averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mystic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mystic average
How we know this about Mystic
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 Mystic’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 Mystic
When does frost risk typically end in Mystic?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mystic typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Mystic?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mystic typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mystic?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mystic sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Nov 1, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mystic?
The federal record around Mystic is a meaningful one — 865 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (472), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Mystic?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mystic's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mystic'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 Mystic’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mystic's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,335 acres it covers and 865 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mystic's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mystic's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 15 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 865 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mystic, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mystic's boundary and the 2,335 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mystic's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mysticlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mystic's 2,335 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Southeastern Connecticut County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Southeastern 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 Southeastern Connecticut County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mystic's 2,335 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mystic you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,335 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Mystic-wide figureread your own land →