Dixfield, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dixfield, 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 Dixfield 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 Dixfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dixfield — the short answer
Dixfield, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Dixfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dixfield's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dixfield
Each reading below is measured for Dixfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDixfield runs about 175 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
MeasuredDixfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Dixfield is in
Dixfield sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Dixfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oxford County.
What Grows in Dixfield
Every plant below cleared Dixfield's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dixfield?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Dixfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Dixfield, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dixfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dixfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELLIS VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DIXFIELD CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TIMBERLAND TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HIGHLAND LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DIXFIELD FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TOWLES CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LOG CABIN GIFT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COMMUNITY QUIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PERU FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TOWLES HARDWARE & LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HENRYS SVC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- THE DIAMOND MATCH COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dixfield'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 Dixfield.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Dixfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dixfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dixfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dixfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dixfield — Mining (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (84 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dixfield
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 Dixfield average
Your land is one point inside Dixfield
Everything above resolves to Dixfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Dixfield Average
Dixfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dixfield
- ●One soil character for all of Dixfield
- ●Frost dates read at Dixfield's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dixfield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dixfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dixfield, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dixfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dixfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dixfield average
How we know this about Dixfield
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 Dixfield’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 Dixfield
When does frost risk typically end in Dixfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dixfield typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Dixfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dixfield typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dixfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dixfield sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 2, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dixfield?
The federal record around Dixfield is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Dixfield?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dixfield's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dixfield'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 Dixfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dixfield's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,146 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dixfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dixfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 16 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dixfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dixfield's boundary and the 1,146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dixfield's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dixfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dixfield's 1,146 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oxford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oxford 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 Oxford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dixfield's 1,146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dixfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,146 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Dixfield-wide figureread your own land →