Eagle Lake, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Eagle Lake, 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 Eagle Lake 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 Eagle Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eagle Lake — the short answer
Eagle Lake, Maine: USDA zone 4a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- 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 4a is Eagle Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle Lake's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagle Lake
Each reading below is measured for Eagle Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagle Lake runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEagle Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Eagle Lake is in
Eagle Lake sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Eagle Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Aroostook County.
What Grows in Eagle Lake
Every plant below cleared Eagle Lake's own zone 4a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagle Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Eagle Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagle Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAULS SVC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FRANCISCAN HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- OLD MILL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- R AND M COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BALD EAGLE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SAUCIERS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HARDEX LUMBER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PELLETIER & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARTIN, JAMES JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DAAQUAM UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BAKER LAKE UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- INDUSTRIAL PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagle Lake'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 Eagle Lake.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Eagle Lake
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagle Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagle Lake, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Eagle Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Eagle Lake
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 Eagle Lake average
Your land is one point inside Eagle Lake
Everything above resolves to Eagle Lake 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 Eagle Lake Average
Eagle Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Eagle Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle Lake's scale: May 9 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagle Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle Lake, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle Lake average
How we know this about Eagle Lake
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 Eagle Lake’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 Eagle Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Lake typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Eagle Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Lake typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagle Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle Lake sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 21, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle Lake?
The federal record around Eagle Lake is light — 28 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Eagle Lake?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Eagle Lake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Eagle Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle Lake'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 Eagle Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eagle Lake's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,531 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 5 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagle Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagle Lake's boundary and the 2,531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eagle Lake's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eagle Lake's 2,531 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aroostook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aroostook 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 Aroostook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagle Lake's 2,531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagle Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,531 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 Eagle Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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