Milbridge, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Milbridge, 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 Milbridge 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 Milbridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milbridge — the short answer
Milbridge, 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- 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 Milbridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milbridge's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milbridge
Each reading below is measured for Milbridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilbridge 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
MeasuredMilbridge 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 Milbridge is in
Milbridge sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milbridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Milbridge
Every plant below cleared Milbridge'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 Milbridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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.
Documented around Milbridge
Survey cells within 31 miles of Milbridge checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Milbridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milbridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUMERY, TERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AE STROUT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MILBRIDGE ON THE RUNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MAP 8 LOT 61Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SARGEANTS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RHOADES BUILDING PRODUCTSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MILBRIDGE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MILBRIDGE TOWN OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- H&H MARINEBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- L RAY PACKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- M & M LOBSTER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PINKHAMS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milbridge'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 Milbridge.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Milbridge
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milbridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milbridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milbridge, Mining runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Milbridge. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Milbridge
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 Milbridge average
Your land is one point inside Milbridge
Everything above resolves to Milbridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Milbridge Average
Milbridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Milbridge
- ●One soil character for all of Milbridge
- ●Frost dates read at Milbridge's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milbridge's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milbridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milbridge, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milbridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milbridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milbridge average
How we know this about Milbridge
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 Milbridge’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 Milbridge
When does frost risk typically end in Milbridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milbridge typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Milbridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milbridge typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milbridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milbridge sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 20, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milbridge?
The federal record around Milbridge runs heavier than most — 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Milbridge?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milbridge's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milbridge'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 Milbridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Milbridge's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,172 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milbridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milbridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 3 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milbridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milbridge's boundary and the 1,172 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 Milbridge's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Milbridge 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 Milbridge's 1,172 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 Milbridge's 1,172 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milbridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,172 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Milbridge-wide figureread your own land →
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