Pemberwick, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pemberwick, 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 Pemberwick 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 Pemberwick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pemberwick — the short answer
Pemberwick, Connecticut: USDA zone 7b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 433 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 433 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 7b is Pemberwick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pemberwick's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pemberwick
Each reading below is measured for Pemberwick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPemberwick runs about 249 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
MeasuredPemberwick sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Pemberwick is in
Pemberwick sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pemberwick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Western Connecticut Planning Region.
What Grows in Pemberwick
Every plant below cleared Pemberwick's own zone 7b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pemberwick?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Pemberwick
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Pemberwick, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pemberwick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pemberwick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILLTOP DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- GREENWICH HOUSING AUTHORITYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MOBIL OIL CORP SERV STA 869Brownfields · 2100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6702Brownfields · 2100 ft
- ALLIANCE ENERGY CORPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- PAY LESS DRY CLEANING INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- GREENWICH METALS INC.Brownfields · 2300 ft
- LUCAR MOTOR SALES INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TRANSFER STATION & COMPOST FACILITYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- GREENWICH LANDFILL (OLD)/TSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RUSTY OXER INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WESTERN MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pemberwick'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 Pemberwick.
Total Sites
1,411
within ~10 miles of Pemberwick
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pemberwick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pemberwick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pemberwick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pemberwick — Brownfields (837 sites) and PFAS (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Pemberwick
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 Pemberwick average
Your land is one point inside Pemberwick
Everything above resolves to Pemberwick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 433 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 Pemberwick Average
Pemberwick Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pemberwick
- ●One soil character for all of Pemberwick
- ●Frost dates read at Pemberwick's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pemberwick's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pemberwick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pemberwick, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pemberwick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pemberwick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pemberwick average
How we know this about Pemberwick
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 Pemberwick’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 Pemberwick
When does frost risk typically end in Pemberwick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pemberwick typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Pemberwick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pemberwick typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pemberwick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pemberwick sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 14, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pemberwick?
The federal record around Pemberwick is a meaningful one — 1,411 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (837), 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 Pemberwick?
From about Oct 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 Nov 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pemberwick's scale — its 7b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pemberwick'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 Pemberwick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pemberwick's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 433 acres it covers and 1,411 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pemberwick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pemberwick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 28 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,411 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pemberwick, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pemberwick's boundary and the 433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pemberwick's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pemberwicklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pemberwick's 433 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 Pemberwick's 433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pemberwick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 433 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 Pemberwick-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutPemberwick sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides