Anson, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Anson, 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 Anson 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 Anson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anson — the short answer
Anson, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 829 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 829 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 5a is Anson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anson's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anson
Each reading below is measured for Anson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnson runs about 174 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAnson sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Anson is in
Anson sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Anson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Somerset County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Anson
Every plant below cleared Anson's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anson?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Anson
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Anson, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Anson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STARKS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ADMINISTRATION BUILDING & GYMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MADISON PAPER MILLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MADISON PAPER MILLToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- SPECIALTY MINERALS (AT MADISON PAPER)Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- MADISON BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MADISON WATER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FAIRPOINT COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- UNITED TIMBER POWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WITHAM, ELLERY DUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BAILEY 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WOODTEK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anson'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 Anson.
Total Sites
172
within ~10 miles of Anson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anson
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Anson
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 Anson average
Your land is one point inside Anson
Everything above resolves to Anson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 829 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 Anson Average
Anson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Anson
- ●One soil character for all of Anson
- ●Frost dates read at Anson's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anson's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anson, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anson average
How we know this about Anson
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 Anson’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 Anson
When does frost risk typically end in Anson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anson typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Anson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anson typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anson sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 3, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anson?
The federal record around Anson shows 172 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Anson?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Anson's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anson'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 Anson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Anson's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 829 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 17 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anson's boundary and the 829 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Anson sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ansonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anson's 829 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset County
- The growing challenges every Maine grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maine
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anson's 829 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 829 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Anson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Wider growing context
What grows across MaineAnson sits outside our named growing regions, so Maine as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides