Newport, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Newport, 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 Newport 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 Newport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newport — the short answer
Newport, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~173
- 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 5a is Newport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newport's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newport
Each reading below is measured for Newport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewport runs about 173 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
MeasuredNewport 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 Newport is in
Newport sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Penobscot County.
What Grows in Newport
Every plant below cleared Newport's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newport?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Newport
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Newport, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L & L VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EAST NEWPORT SITE GAS PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ON THE RUN- ELM STREETBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ELM STREET ON THE RUNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GUILFORD INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NEWPORT TOWN OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PRAYS SVC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NEWPORT INDUSTRIAL FABRICATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- JAMES W SMITH CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LAKESIDE CONCRETE CUTTING INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- HP HOOD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TRUE TEXTILESToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newport'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 Newport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newport, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Newport. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Newport
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 Newport average
Your land is one point inside Newport
Everything above resolves to Newport 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 Newport Average
Newport Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Newport
- ●One soil character for all of Newport
- ●Frost dates read at Newport's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newport's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newport, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newport average
How we know this about Newport
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 Newport’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 Newport
When does frost risk typically end in Newport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newport typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Newport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newport 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 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newport sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 30, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newport?
The federal record around Newport is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Newport?
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 Newport's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newport'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 Newport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newport's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,250 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 14 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newport's boundary and the 2,250 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newport's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newportlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newport's 2,250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Penobscot County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Penobscot 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 Penobscot County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newport's 2,250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,250 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Newport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Wider growing context
What grows across MaineNewport sits outside our named growing regions, so Maine as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides