Cape Neddick, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cape Neddick, 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 Cape Neddick 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 Cape Neddick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cape Neddick — the short answer
Cape Neddick, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- 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 Cape Neddick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape Neddick's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Cape Neddick's own 30-year record measures about 206 days between 28°F killing freezes — 40 days longer than York County's ~166. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Cape Neddick's ~206-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cape Neddick
Each reading below is measured for Cape Neddick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCape Neddick 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
MeasuredCape Neddick 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 Cape Neddick is in
Cape Neddick sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape Neddick's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Cape Neddick
Every plant below cleared Cape Neddick'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 Cape Neddick?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Cape Neddick
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Cape Neddick, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cape Neddick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape Neddick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANDERSONS INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BURNETTS TENT & TRAILER AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CAPE NEDDICK LIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- YORK BEACH COND ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- YORKS WILD KINGDOM INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CHASES GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ABBOTT BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TURNER MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- YORK PUBLIC WORKS- RTE ONE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- YORK SEWER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ELDREDGE LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ANTHONY'S FOOD SHOPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape Neddick'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 Cape Neddick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape Neddick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape Neddick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cape Neddick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cape Neddick — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (159 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cape Neddick
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 Cape Neddick average
Your land is one point inside Cape Neddick
Everything above resolves to Cape Neddick as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Cape Neddick Average
Cape Neddick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cape Neddick
- ●One soil character for all of Cape Neddick
- ●Frost dates read at Cape Neddick's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape Neddick's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape Neddick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape Neddick, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape Neddick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape Neddick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape Neddick average
How we know this about Cape Neddick
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 Cape Neddick’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 Cape Neddick
When does frost risk typically end in Cape Neddick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Neddick typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Cape Neddick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Neddick typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cape Neddick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cape Neddick sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 19, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cape Neddick?
The federal record around Cape Neddick is a meaningful one — 244 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Cape Neddick?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cape Neddick's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cape Neddick'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 Cape Neddick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cape Neddick's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,388 acres it covers and 244 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape Neddick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cape Neddick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 2 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape Neddick, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape Neddick's boundary and the 2,388 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 Cape Neddick's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cape Neddicklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cape Neddick's 2,388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cape Neddick's 2,388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape Neddick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Cape Neddick-wide figureread your own land →
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