Eastport, 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 Eastport, 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 Eastport 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 Eastport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eastport — the short answer
Eastport, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Eastport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eastport's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eastport
Each reading below is measured for Eastport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEastport runs about 215 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
MeasuredEastport 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 Eastport is in
Eastport sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Eastport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Eastport
Every plant below cleared Eastport's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eastport?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Eastport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eastport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAY CITY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- OCEAN PRODUCTS LTD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OCEAN PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EASTPORT MAINWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BASF-EASTPORT-INACTIVE SITE-(REMEDIATION)Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- IRVING EASTPORT MAINWAYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- RMLR, SEARSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FAIRPOINT COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MILIANOS PIZZA HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- COOK & GOODWILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CUMMINGS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FIBER EXTRUSION INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eastport'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 Eastport.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Eastport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eastport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eastport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eastport, Mining runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Eastport. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Eastport
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 Eastport average
Your land is one point inside Eastport
Everything above resolves to Eastport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Eastport Average
Eastport Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Eastport
- ●One soil character for all of Eastport
- ●Frost dates read at Eastport's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eastport's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eastport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eastport, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eastport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eastport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eastport average
How we know this about Eastport
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Eastport’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Eastport
When does frost risk typically end in Eastport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eastport typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Eastport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eastport typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eastport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eastport sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 31, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eastport?
The federal record around Eastport is a meaningful one — 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Eastport?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eastport's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eastport'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 Eastport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eastport's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,326 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eastport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eastport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 14 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eastport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eastport's boundary and the 2,326 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eastport'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 Eastport's 2,326 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eastport's 2,326 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eastport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,326 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Eastport-wide figureread your own land →
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