Kezar Falls, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Kezar Falls, 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 Kezar Falls 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 Kezar Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kezar Falls — the short answer
Kezar Falls, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 492 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 492 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 Kezar Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kezar Falls's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kezar Falls
Each reading below is measured for Kezar Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKezar Falls runs about 166 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
MeasuredKezar Falls 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 Kezar Falls is in
Kezar Falls sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Kezar Falls's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: York County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kezar Falls
Every plant below cleared Kezar Falls's own zone 5a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kezar Falls?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Kezar Falls
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kezar Falls checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kezar Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kezar Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEZAR FALLS SVC CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WALKER CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MDOT GAMMON PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- VILLAGE VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ENI 2344 VILLAGE VARIETYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- KEZAR FALLS WOOLEN COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- Galena MineMining · 0.6 mi
- HIRAM BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WELCHS DISCOUNT STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STEVE & DEBS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DWIGHT R MILLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GILPATRICKS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kezar Falls'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 Kezar Falls.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of Kezar Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kezar Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kezar Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kezar Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Kezar Falls. 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 Kezar Falls
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 Kezar Falls average
Your land is one point inside Kezar Falls
Everything above resolves to Kezar Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 492 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 Kezar Falls Average
Kezar Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Kezar Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Kezar Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Kezar Falls's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kezar Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kezar Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kezar Falls, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kezar Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kezar Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kezar Falls average
How we know this about Kezar Falls
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 Kezar Falls’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 Kezar Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Kezar Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kezar Falls typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Kezar Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kezar Falls typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kezar Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kezar Falls sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 28, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kezar Falls?
The federal record around Kezar Falls is a meaningful one — 113 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), 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 Kezar Falls?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kezar Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kezar Falls'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 Kezar Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kezar Falls's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 492 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kezar Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kezar Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 12 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kezar Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kezar Falls's boundary and the 492 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kezar Falls sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Kezar Falls 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 Kezar Falls's 492 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kezar Falls's 492 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kezar Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 492 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 Kezar Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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