Brunswick, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brunswick, 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 Brunswick 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 Brunswick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brunswick — the short answer
Brunswick, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Brunswick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brunswick's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brunswick
Each reading below is measured for Brunswick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrunswick runs about 196 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
MeasuredBrunswick 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 Brunswick is in
Brunswick sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brunswick's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cumberland County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brunswick
Every plant below cleared Brunswick's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brunswick?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Brunswick
Survey cells within 31 miles of Brunswick checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 51 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brunswick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brunswick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRUNSWICK LANDING- THE ROUX INSTITUTE/KRIBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BRUNSWICK MAINE AFFF RELEASESuperfund · 0.9 mi
- JOHN G GIBSON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KATES DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- US NAVY NAVAL AIR STATION BRUNSWICK 2Toxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- BRUNSWICK ARTESIAN WELL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RUSH, ROLAND SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SOUTHERN MAINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE MIDCOAST CAMPUSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- BRUNSWICK NAVAL AIR STATIONSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- PARKVIEW MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MR MIKE'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- VIVE COLLISION DBA SEACOAST AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brunswick'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 Brunswick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brunswick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brunswick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brunswick, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Brunswick. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Brunswick
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 Brunswick average
Your land is one point inside Brunswick
Everything above resolves to Brunswick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Brunswick Average
Brunswick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Brunswick
- ●One soil character for all of Brunswick
- ●Frost dates read at Brunswick's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brunswick's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brunswick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brunswick, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brunswick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brunswick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brunswick average
How we know this about Brunswick
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 Brunswick’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 Brunswick
When does frost risk typically end in Brunswick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brunswick typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Brunswick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brunswick typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brunswick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brunswick sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 14, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brunswick?
The federal record around Brunswick is a meaningful one — 362 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (193), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Brunswick?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brunswick's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brunswick'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 Brunswick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brunswick's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,440 acres it covers and 362 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brunswick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brunswick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 28 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 362 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brunswick, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brunswick's boundary and the 12,440 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brunswick sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Brunswick 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 Brunswick's 12,440 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brunswick's 12,440 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brunswick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,440 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Brunswick-wide figureread your own land →
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