Machias, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Machias, 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 Machias 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 Machias — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Machias — the short answer
Machias, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Machias's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Machias's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Machias
Each reading below is measured for Machias itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMachias runs about 186 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
MeasuredMachias sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Machias is in
Machias sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Machias's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Machias
Every plant below cleared Machias's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Machias?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Machias
Survey cells within 31 miles of Machias checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 61 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Machias
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Machias. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RHOADES BUILDING PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MACHIAS TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- EDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MACHIAS TIRE & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PORTER, ALFREDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- RITE AID PHARMACYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HAWKINS, CHESTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TOMS MINI MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 18157Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WW 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CITGO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALGREENS DRUG STORE 17481Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Machias'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 Machias.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Machias
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Machias
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Machias
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Machias, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Machias — Mining (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (53 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Machias
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 Machias average
Your land is one point inside Machias
Everything above resolves to Machias 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 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 Machias Average
Machias Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Machias
- ●One soil character for all of Machias
- ●Frost dates read at Machias's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Machias's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Machias
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Machias, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Machias averages can't show:
We read public map data around Machias — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Machias average
How we know this about Machias
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 Machias’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 Machias
When does frost risk typically end in Machias?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Machias typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Machias?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Machias typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Machias?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Machias sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 12, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Machias?
The federal record around Machias is a meaningful one — 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Machias?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Machias's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Machias'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 Machias’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Machias's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,728 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Machias's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Machias's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 26 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Machias, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Machias's boundary and the 1,728 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Machias's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Machias 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 Machias's 1,728 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 Machias's 1,728 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Machias you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,728 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Machias-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Growing region