Lubec, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lubec, 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 Lubec 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 Lubec — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lubec — the short answer
Lubec, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 333 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 333 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 Lubec's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lubec's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lubec
Each reading below is measured for Lubec itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLubec runs about 216 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
MeasuredLubec 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 Lubec is in
Lubec sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lubec's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Lubec
Every plant below cleared Lubec's own zone 6a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lubec?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Lubec
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lubec. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUODDY DOLPHINUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- QUIK SHOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- COREY & COREY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BROWN, LARRY MUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BARGIN BOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STINSON SEAFOOD (2000) INCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- LUBEC HARDWAREBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PLEASANT RIDGE PLANTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MCFADDENS VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- STANLEY, SHELDON MUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WW 900Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- BASF-EASTPORT-INACTIVE SITE-(REMEDIATION)Brownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lubec'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 Lubec.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Lubec
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lubec
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lubec
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lubec, Mining runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Lubec. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lubec
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 Lubec average
Your land is one point inside Lubec
Everything above resolves to Lubec as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 333 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 Lubec Average
Lubec Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lubec
- ●One soil character for all of Lubec
- ●Frost dates read at Lubec's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lubec's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lubec
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lubec, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lubec averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lubec — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lubec average
How we know this about Lubec
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 Lubec’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 Lubec
When does frost risk typically end in Lubec?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lubec 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 Lubec?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lubec 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 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lubec?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lubec sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 31, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lubec?
The federal record around Lubec is a meaningful one — 52 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), 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 Lubec?
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 Lubec's scale — its 6a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lubec'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 Lubec’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lubec's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 333 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lubec's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lubec's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 14 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lubec, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lubec's boundary and the 333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lubec'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 Lubec's 333 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 Lubec's 333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lubec you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 333 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 Lubec-wide figureread your own land →
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