Cumberland County, in Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Cumberland County lies within Casco Bay / Greater Portland — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cumberland County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cumberland County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Cumberland County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cumberland County — the short answer
Cumberland County, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 535K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 535K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5b is Cumberland County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cumberland County's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cumberland County
Across a year, Cumberland County accumulates about 2,041 growing degree days above 50°F, about 283 more than the middle Maine county — ahead of 14 of Maine’s 16 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Cumberland County
Across Cumberland County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Hermon, Paxton, and Windsor are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cumberland County
The USDA soil survey maps 21% of Cumberland County as moderately well drained — but another 60% drains differently: 20% somewhat excessively drained, 11% excessively drained.
Hermon is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Paxton (8%) and Windsor (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Cumberland County
Each reading below is measured for Cumberland County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Cumberland County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group A — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cumberland County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 18% of Cumberland County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCumberland County runs about 188 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
The kind of country Cumberland County is in
Cumberland County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Coastal Zone (47%), Northeastern Highlands (40%) and Acadian Plains and Hills (12%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Cumberland County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cumberland County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 188-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile.
Is it too late to plant in Cumberland County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Cumberland County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cumberland County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle13 documented records
- monarch butterfly1,493 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cumberland County
USGS estimates 751 lb of Glyphosate on Cumberland County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (697 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (484 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Cumberland County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cumberland County — 1,771 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 23 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Cumberland County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cumberland County
Closest first, across Cumberland County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE ROCK INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ME TURNPIKE SIGN SHOPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BUDDS GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JIM & CAROLS VARIETY ST RESIDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- J BROTHERS VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- THE LIDO CO OF NEW ENGLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CW 370Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- CW 1371Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- CW 221Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CW 220Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CARR & LANGILL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cumberland County'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 Cumberland County.
Sources Checked
across Cumberland County
Severity Distribution
across Cumberland County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cumberland County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 23 sites across Cumberland County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Cumberland County
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 Cumberland County average
Your land is one point inside Cumberland County
Everything above resolves to Cumberland County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 535K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Cumberland County Average
Cumberland County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cumberland County
- ●One soil character for all of Cumberland County
- ●Frost dates read at Cumberland County's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cumberland County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cumberland County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cumberland County, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cumberland County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cumberland County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cumberland County average
How we know this about Cumberland County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Cumberland County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cumberland County
When does frost risk typically end in Cumberland County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland County typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Cumberland County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cumberland County sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 10, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cumberland County?
The federal record around Cumberland County runs heavier than most — 1,771 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (928), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Cumberland County's scale — its 5b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cumberland County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Maine's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Cumberland County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cumberland County's own scale — its own ~188-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,771 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cumberland County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cumberland County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cumberland CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,771 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cumberland County's boundary and the 535,188 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Cumberland County spans, Northeastern Coastal Zone the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cumberland County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cumberland County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Maine grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maine
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Cumberland County — the ~188 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cumberland County's 535,188 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,771 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Cumberland Countyread your own land →