Boothbay Harbor, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Boothbay Harbor, 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 Boothbay Harbor 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 Boothbay Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boothbay Harbor — the short answer
Boothbay Harbor, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 543 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 543 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 6a is Boothbay Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boothbay Harbor's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boothbay Harbor
Each reading below is measured for Boothbay Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBoothbay Harbor runs about 206 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
MeasuredBoothbay Harbor sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Boothbay Harbor is in
Boothbay Harbor sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Boothbay Harbor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Boothbay Harbor
Every plant below cleared Boothbay Harbor's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boothbay Harbor?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Boothbay Harbor
Survey cells within 31 miles of Boothbay Harbor checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Boothbay Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boothbay Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRPOINT COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- GOOD N YOU FUEL & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GRANARY WAY SHOPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BOOTHBAY HARBOR MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BOOTHBAY HARBOR MAINWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CIRCLE K #7028Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WOTTONS LOBSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHIPYARD IN BOOTHBAY HARBOR LBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS 19886Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BOOTHBAY REGION LOBSTERMEN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MID COAST MARINE SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FREEZER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boothbay Harbor'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 Boothbay Harbor.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Boothbay Harbor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boothbay Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boothbay Harbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boothbay Harbor, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 73 sites within ~10 miles of Boothbay Harbor. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Boothbay Harbor
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 Boothbay Harbor average
Your land is one point inside Boothbay Harbor
Everything above resolves to Boothbay Harbor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 543 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 Boothbay Harbor Average
Boothbay Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Boothbay Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of Boothbay Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at Boothbay Harbor's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boothbay Harbor's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boothbay Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boothbay Harbor, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boothbay Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boothbay Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boothbay Harbor average
How we know this about Boothbay Harbor
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 Boothbay Harbor’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 Boothbay Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in Boothbay Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boothbay Harbor 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 Boothbay Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boothbay Harbor typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boothbay Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boothbay Harbor sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 22, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boothbay Harbor?
The federal record around Boothbay Harbor is a meaningful one — 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Boothbay Harbor?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boothbay Harbor's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boothbay Harbor'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 Boothbay Harbor’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Boothbay Harbor's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 543 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boothbay Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boothbay Harbor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 5 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boothbay Harbor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boothbay Harbor's boundary and the 543 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boothbay Harbor's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Boothbay Harbor checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boothbay Harbor's 543 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boothbay Harbor's 543 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boothbay Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 543 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Boothbay Harbor-wide figureread your own land →
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