Milo, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Milo, 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 Milo 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 Milo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Milo — the short answer
Milo, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Milo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milo's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milo
Each reading below is measured for Milo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilo runs about 168 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
MeasuredMilo 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 Milo is in
Milo sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Piscataquis County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Milo
Every plant below cleared Milo's own zone 5a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Milo
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Milo, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Milo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- MAINE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- REUBENS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JAMES RIVER CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LONDON, WILLIAM WUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MONTREAL MAINE & ATLANTIC RAILWAY DERBY SHOPSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FAIRPOINT COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LJ S EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- L & H CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MILO CHIPMILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- MILO TOWN OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milo'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 Milo.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Milo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Milo. 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 Milo
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 Milo average
Your land is one point inside Milo
Everything above resolves to Milo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Milo Average
Milo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Milo
- ●One soil character for all of Milo
- ●Frost dates read at Milo's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milo's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milo, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milo average
How we know this about Milo
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 Milo’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 Milo
When does frost risk typically end in Milo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milo typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Milo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milo typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milo sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 29, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milo?
The federal record around Milo shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Milo?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milo's scale — its 5a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milo'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 Milo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Milo's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,972 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 13 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milo's boundary and the 4,972 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Milo sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Milolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milo's 4,972 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Piscataquis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Piscataquis 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 Piscataquis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milo's 4,972 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,972 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Milo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Wider growing context
What grows across MaineMilo sits outside our named growing regions, so Maine as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides