Cumberland Center, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cumberland Center, 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 Cumberland Center 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 Cumberland Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cumberland Center — the short answer
Cumberland Center, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Cumberland Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cumberland Center's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cumberland Center
Each reading below is measured for Cumberland Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCumberland Center runs about 199 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
MeasuredCumberland Center 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 Cumberland Center is in
Cumberland Center sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cumberland Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Cumberland Center
Every plant below cleared Cumberland Center's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cumberland Center?
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 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 30 — 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 Cumberland Center
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cumberland Center 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.
What's on the federal record near Cumberland Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cumberland Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MILE 56 SVC AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MILE 57 SVC AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- VALHALLA GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CUMBERLAND PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GYGER GYMNASIUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CUMBERLAND SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ME-CW2042 HHID 068 HETLID B026889 RECRUITID 109Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CW 1370Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- BURNELL, CARLANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CUMBERLAND EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NORTH YARMOUTH HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cumberland Center'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 Center.
Total Sites
738
within ~10 miles of Cumberland Center
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cumberland Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cumberland Center
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Cumberland Center
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 Center average
Your land is one point inside Cumberland Center
Everything above resolves to Cumberland Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Cumberland Center Average
Cumberland Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cumberland Center
- ●One soil character for all of Cumberland Center
- ●Frost dates read at Cumberland Center's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cumberland Center's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cumberland Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cumberland Center, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cumberland Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cumberland Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cumberland Center average
How we know this about Cumberland Center
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 Cumberland Center’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 Cumberland Center
When does frost risk typically end in Cumberland Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland Center 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 Cumberland Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland Center typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cumberland Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cumberland Center sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 16, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cumberland Center?
The federal record around Cumberland Center is a meaningful one — 738 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (414), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cumberland Center?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cumberland Center's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cumberland Center'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 Cumberland Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cumberland Center's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,708 acres it covers and 738 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cumberland Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cumberland Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 30 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 738 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cumberland Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cumberland Center's boundary and the 2,708 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cumberland Center's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cumberland Center 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 Cumberland Center's 2,708 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 Cumberland Center's 2,708 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cumberland Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,708 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cumberland Center-wide figureread your own land →