Pawcatuck, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pawcatuck, 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 Pawcatuck 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 Pawcatuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pawcatuck — the short answer
Pawcatuck, Connecticut: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- 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 Pawcatuck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pawcatuck's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pawcatuck
Each reading below is measured for Pawcatuck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPawcatuck runs about 225 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
MeasuredPawcatuck 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 Pawcatuck is in
Pawcatuck sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pawcatuck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region.
What Grows in Pawcatuck
Every plant below cleared Pawcatuck's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pawcatuck?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Pawcatuck
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Pawcatuck, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pawcatuck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pawcatuck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CT-SN 71Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Hendel's CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RITE AID 10359Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- MXI INC HHHWBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- STONINGTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MXI INC HWWWBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PUMP STATION #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DAVIS-STANDARD, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DAVIS-STANDARD CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- DAVIS-STANDARD CORPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EXTRUSION DRIVE PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WESTERLY WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pawcatuck'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 Pawcatuck.
Total Sites
629
within ~10 miles of Pawcatuck
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pawcatuck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pawcatuck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pawcatuck, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 186 sites within ~10 miles of Pawcatuck. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pawcatuck
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 Pawcatuck average
Your land is one point inside Pawcatuck
Everything above resolves to Pawcatuck 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 Pawcatuck Average
Pawcatuck Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pawcatuck
- ●One soil character for all of Pawcatuck
- ●Frost dates read at Pawcatuck's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pawcatuck's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pawcatuck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pawcatuck, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pawcatuck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pawcatuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pawcatuck average
How we know this about Pawcatuck
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 Pawcatuck’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 Pawcatuck
When does frost risk typically end in Pawcatuck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pawcatuck typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Pawcatuck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pawcatuck typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pawcatuck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pawcatuck sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pawcatuck?
The federal record around Pawcatuck is a meaningful one — 629 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (245), the nearest Nitrate 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 Pawcatuck?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pawcatuck's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pawcatuck'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 Pawcatuck’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pawcatuck's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,184 acres it covers and 629 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pawcatuck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pawcatuck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 629 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pawcatuck, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pawcatuck's boundary and the 2,184 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pawcatuck's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pawcatucklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pawcatuck's 2,184 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 Pawcatuck's 2,184 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pawcatuck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,184 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Pawcatuck-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutPawcatuck sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides