Stratford Downtown, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Stratford Downtown, 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 Stratford Downtown 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 Stratford Downtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stratford Downtown — the short answer
Stratford Downtown, Connecticut: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 400 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 400 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 Stratford Downtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stratford Downtown's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stratford Downtown
Each reading below is measured for Stratford Downtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStratford Downtown runs about 236 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
MeasuredStratford Downtown 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 Stratford Downtown is in
Stratford Downtown sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stratford Downtown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greater Bridgeport Planning Region.
What Grows in Stratford Downtown
Every plant below cleared Stratford Downtown's own zone 7a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stratford Downtown?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Stratford Downtown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Stratford Downtown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stratford Downtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stratford Downtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MXI ENV HHHWCBrownfields · 700 ft
- CONTRACT PLATING COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SPADA'S ROTARY SHOPSuperfund · 850 ft
- POLICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CONTRACT PLATING COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 950 ft
- CONTRACT PLATING COMPANY, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- ALLIANCE ENERGYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- REYNOLDS ALUMINUM BUILDING PROD COMPANYSuperfund · 1100 ft
- CURRAN V W ISUZU INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- STRATFORD CENTRAL OFFICE (3731)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TEJADA RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SAINT JOHN'S CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stratford Downtown'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 Stratford Downtown.
Total Sites
1,887
within ~10 miles of Stratford Downtown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
29 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stratford Downtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stratford Downtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stratford Downtown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stratford Downtown — Superfund (29 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (142 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Stratford Downtown
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 Stratford Downtown average
Your land is one point inside Stratford Downtown
Everything above resolves to Stratford Downtown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 400 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 Stratford Downtown Average
Stratford Downtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Stratford Downtown
- ●One soil character for all of Stratford Downtown
- ●Frost dates read at Stratford Downtown's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stratford Downtown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stratford Downtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stratford Downtown, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stratford Downtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stratford Downtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stratford Downtown average
How we know this about Stratford Downtown
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 Stratford Downtown’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 Stratford Downtown
When does frost risk typically end in Stratford Downtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford Downtown typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Stratford Downtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford Downtown typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stratford Downtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stratford Downtown sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 5, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stratford Downtown?
The federal record around Stratford Downtown is a meaningful one — 1,887 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (956), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Stratford Downtown?
From about Oct 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 Nov 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stratford Downtown's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stratford Downtown'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 Stratford Downtown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stratford Downtown's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 400 acres it covers and 1,887 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stratford Downtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stratford Downtown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 19 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,887 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stratford Downtown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stratford Downtown's boundary and the 400 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stratford Downtown's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stratford Downtownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stratford Downtown's 400 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greater Bridgeport County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greater Bridgeport 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 Greater Bridgeport County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stratford Downtown's 400 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stratford Downtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 400 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Stratford Downtown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutStratford Downtown sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides