Bethel, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — 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 Bethel, 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 Bethel 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 Bethel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethel — the short answer
Bethel, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Bethel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethel's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethel
Each reading below is measured for Bethel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBethel runs about 171 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
MeasuredBethel 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 Bethel is in
Bethel sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Bethel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oxford County.
What Grows in Bethel
Every plant below cleared Bethel's own zone 5a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethel?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Bethel
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Bethel, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bethel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOKS BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PREB'S MARKETPLACE PHARMACYSuperfund · 1200 ft
- BETHEL MUNICIPAL BLDG TOWN OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BETHEL IRVINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BASTIANELLI PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BETHEL HEATING OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BINGHAM HALL GENERATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- D A WILSON & COBrownfields · 2300 ft
- BIG APPLE # 1041Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LE DAVIS LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WESTERN MAINE SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHARLIES CHEVRON STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethel'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 Bethel.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Bethel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethel, Mining runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Bethel. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Bethel
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 Bethel average
Your land is one point inside Bethel
Everything above resolves to Bethel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bethel Average
Bethel Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bethel
- ●One soil character for all of Bethel
- ●Frost dates read at Bethel's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethel's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethel, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethel average
How we know this about Bethel
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 Bethel’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 Bethel
When does frost risk typically end in Bethel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel 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 Bethel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethel sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 30, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethel?
The federal record around Bethel is a meaningful one — 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bethel?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bethel's scale — its 5a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethel'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 Bethel’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bethel's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,042 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 14 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethel's boundary and the 1,042 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bethel's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bethellydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethel's 1,042 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oxford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oxford 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 Oxford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethel's 1,042 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,042 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 Bethel-wide figureread your own land →