Camden, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Camden, 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 Camden 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 Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Camden — the short answer
Camden, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Camden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camden's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camden
Each reading below is measured for Camden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCamden 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
MeasuredCamden 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 Camden is in
Camden sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Camden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Camden
Every plant below cleared Camden'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 Camden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Camden
Survey cells within 31 miles of Camden checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Camden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMDEN AGWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CAMDEN FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MSAD 28 BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CLOTHES CARE UNLIMITEDSuperfund · 1500 ft
- CAMDEN PUBLIC WORKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WALGREENS 17523Brownfields · 1900 ft
- VERIZONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JOHNS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- P G WILEY & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- VILLAGE VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CAMDEN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LADY MILLVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camden'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 Camden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Camden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Camden — Superfund (3 sites) and Mining (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Camden
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 Camden average
Your land is one point inside Camden
Everything above resolves to Camden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Camden Average
Camden Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Camden
- ●One soil character for all of Camden
- ●Frost dates read at Camden's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camden's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camden, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camden average
How we know this about Camden
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 Camden’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 Camden
When does frost risk typically end in Camden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camden typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Camden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camden typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Camden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camden sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 13, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Camden?
The federal record around Camden is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), 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 Camden?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Camden's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camden'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 Camden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Camden's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,410 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Camden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 27 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camden's boundary and the 2,410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Camden's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Camden 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 Camden's 2,410 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Camden's 2,410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,410 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 Camden-wide figureread your own land →
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