Augusta, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Augusta, 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 Augusta 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 Augusta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Augusta — the short answer
Augusta, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 35K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 35K 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 5b is Augusta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Augusta's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Augusta
Each reading below is measured for Augusta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAugusta runs about 200 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
MeasuredAugusta sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Augusta is in
Augusta sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Augusta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kennebec County.
What Grows in Augusta
Every plant below cleared Augusta's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Augusta?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Augusta
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Augusta, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Augusta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Augusta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TWINS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BREWERS DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WOODMASTER OF MAINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RIVERSIDE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FORMER STRATHAM TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- OCONNOR MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AUGUSTA NEWS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BOLTON HILL HDQUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- STAR ENERGY RIVERSIDE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TYSON WHOLESALE MEATSToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- 184 RIVERSIDE INDUSTRIAL COMPLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Augusta'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 Augusta.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Augusta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Augusta
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 Augusta
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 Augusta average
Your land is one point inside Augusta
Everything above resolves to Augusta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 35K 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 city 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 Augusta Average
Augusta Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Augusta
- ●One soil character for all of Augusta
- ●Frost dates read at Augusta's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Augusta's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Augusta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Augusta, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Augusta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Augusta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Augusta average
How we know this about Augusta
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Augusta’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Augusta
When does frost risk typically end in Augusta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Augusta typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Augusta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Augusta typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Augusta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Augusta sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 16, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Augusta?
The federal record around Augusta is a meaningful one — 436 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (261), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Augusta?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Augusta's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Augusta'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 Augusta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Augusta's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 35,291 acres it covers and 436 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Augusta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Augusta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 30 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 436 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Augusta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Augusta's boundary and the 35,291 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Augusta's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Augustalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Augusta's 35,291 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kennebec County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kennebec 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 Kennebec County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Augusta's 35,291 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Augusta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,291 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Augusta-wide figureread your own land →
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