Randolph, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Randolph, 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 Randolph 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 Randolph — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Randolph — the short answer
Randolph, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~194
- 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 5b is Randolph's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Randolph's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Randolph
Each reading below is measured for Randolph itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRandolph runs about 194 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
MeasuredRandolph 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 Randolph is in
Randolph sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Randolph's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kennebec County.
What Grows in Randolph
Every plant below cleared Randolph's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Randolph?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Randolph
Survey cells within 31 miles of Randolph checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Randolph
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Randolph. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAINE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 900 ft
- MDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RANDOLPH TAKE OUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PRICE, EGBERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COUTTS BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BOWEN MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RANDOLPH SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RANDOLPH GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CHELSEA GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FARMINGDALE DISCOUNTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WILSONS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DONAHEES GETTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Randolph'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 Randolph.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Randolph, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 267 sites within ~10 miles of Randolph. 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 Randolph
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 Randolph average
Your land is one point inside Randolph
Everything above resolves to Randolph 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 Randolph Average
Randolph Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Randolph
- ●One soil character for all of Randolph
- ●Frost dates read at Randolph's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Randolph's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Randolph
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Randolph, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Randolph averages can't show:
We read public map data around Randolph — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Randolph average
How we know this about Randolph
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 Randolph’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 Randolph
When does frost risk typically end in Randolph?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Randolph?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph 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 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Randolph?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Randolph sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Randolph?
The federal record around Randolph is a meaningful one — 425 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (267), the nearest Brownfields 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 Randolph?
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 Randolph's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Randolph'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 Randolph’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Randolph's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,366 acres it covers and 425 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Randolph's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Randolph's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 26 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 425 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Randolph, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Randolph's boundary and the 1,366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Randolph's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Randolph 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 Randolph's 1,366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kennebec County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kennebec 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 Kennebec County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Randolph's 1,366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Randolph you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Randolph-wide figureread your own land →
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