Livermore Falls, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Livermore 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 Livermore 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 Livermore Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Livermore Falls — the short answer
Livermore Falls, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 770 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 770 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 Livermore Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Livermore Falls's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Livermore Falls
Each reading below is measured for Livermore Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLivermore Falls 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
MeasuredLivermore 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 Livermore Falls is in
Livermore Falls sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Livermore Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Androscoggin County.
What Grows in Livermore Falls
Every plant below cleared Livermore Falls'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 Livermore Falls?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Livermore Falls
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Livermore Falls, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Livermore Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Livermore Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RSU 73 BUS GARAGE SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BOWEN BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BAILEY BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FARMINGTON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JAY SEWER DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JAY TOWN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LIVERMORE FALLS CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- G & B VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS INC 1834Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KEENES DISCOUNT GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BOWMAN AIRPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 1937Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Livermore 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 Livermore Falls.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Livermore Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Livermore Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Livermore Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Livermore Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Livermore Falls. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Livermore 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 Livermore Falls average
Your land is one point inside Livermore Falls
Everything above resolves to Livermore Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 770 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 Livermore Falls Average
Livermore Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Livermore Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Livermore Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Livermore Falls's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Livermore Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Livermore Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Livermore Falls, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Livermore Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Livermore Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Livermore Falls average
How we know this about Livermore 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 Livermore 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 Livermore Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Livermore Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Livermore Falls typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Livermore Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Livermore Falls typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Livermore Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Livermore Falls sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 30, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Livermore Falls?
The federal record around Livermore Falls is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Livermore Falls?
From about Sep 14 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 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 Oct 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Livermore Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Livermore 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 Livermore Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Livermore Falls's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 770 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Livermore Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Livermore Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 14 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Livermore Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Livermore Falls's boundary and the 770 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 Livermore Falls's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Livermore Fallslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Livermore Falls's 770 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Androscoggin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Androscoggin 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 Androscoggin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Livermore Falls's 770 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Livermore 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 770 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Livermore Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Wider growing context
What grows across MaineLivermore Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Maine as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides