Kittery Point, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Kittery Point, 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 Kittery Point 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 Kittery Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kittery Point — the short answer
Kittery Point, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- 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 6a is Kittery Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kittery Point's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Kittery Point's own 30-year record measures about 203 days between 28°F killing freezes — 37 days longer than York County's ~166. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Kittery Point's ~203-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kittery Point
Each reading below is measured for Kittery Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKittery Point runs about 203 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
MeasuredKittery Point 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 Kittery Point is in
Kittery Point sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kittery Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Kittery Point
Every plant below cleared Kittery Point's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kittery Point?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
Documented around Kittery Point
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Kittery Point, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kittery Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kittery Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEAVER, SUSSETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KITTERY TOWN PIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DIONS YACHT YARDBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- ESTATE OF ELIZABETH PLUMMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- KITTERY POINT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- US COAST GUARD STA PORTSMOUTH HARBORBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- USCG STATION PORTSMOUTH HARBORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- PORTSMOUTH YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DOROTHY TREFETHEN RESIDENCE C/O MADDEN GROUPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- KITTERY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WALGREENS 19330Brownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kittery Point'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 Kittery Point.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kittery Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kittery Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kittery Point, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kittery Point — PFAS (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kittery Point
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 Kittery Point average
Your land is one point inside Kittery Point
Everything above resolves to Kittery Point as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Kittery Point Average
Kittery Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kittery Point
- ●One soil character for all of Kittery Point
- ●Frost dates read at Kittery Point's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kittery Point's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kittery Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kittery Point, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kittery Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kittery Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kittery Point average
How we know this about Kittery Point
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 Kittery Point’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 Kittery Point
When does frost risk typically end in Kittery Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kittery Point typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Kittery Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kittery Point typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kittery Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kittery Point sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 18, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kittery Point?
The federal record around Kittery Point runs heavier than most — 515 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (268), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kittery Point?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kittery Point's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kittery Point'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 Kittery Point’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kittery Point's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,221 acres it covers and 515 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kittery Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kittery Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 1 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 515 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kittery Point, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kittery Point's boundary and the 1,221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kittery Point's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kittery Pointlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kittery Point's 1,221 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 Kittery Point's 1,221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kittery Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Kittery Point-wide figureread your own land →
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