Sabattus, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sabattus, 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 Sabattus 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 Sabattus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sabattus — the short answer
Sabattus, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 450 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 450 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 Sabattus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sabattus's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sabattus
Each reading below is measured for Sabattus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSabattus runs about 193 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
MeasuredSabattus 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 Sabattus is in
Sabattus sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sabattus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Androscoggin County.
What Grows in Sabattus
Every plant below cleared Sabattus's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sabattus?
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 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 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Sabattus
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sabattus checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sabattus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sabattus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUSTY LANTERN # 0007, LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SHOW ME INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS INC 1849Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 5614/1849Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SABATTUS SOLID WASTE TRANS STABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SABATTUS PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DANS SVC GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BOUTIN & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LEWISTON IRVINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GRONDINS AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LP POIRIER & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ANW 1129Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sabattus'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 Sabattus.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sabattus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sabattus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sabattus, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Sabattus. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Sabattus
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 Sabattus average
Your land is one point inside Sabattus
Everything above resolves to Sabattus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 450 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 Sabattus Average
Sabattus Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sabattus
- ●One soil character for all of Sabattus
- ●Frost dates read at Sabattus's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sabattus's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sabattus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sabattus, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sabattus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sabattus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sabattus average
How we know this about Sabattus
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 Sabattus’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 Sabattus
When does frost risk typically end in Sabattus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sabattus 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 Sabattus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sabattus typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sabattus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sabattus sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 11, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sabattus?
The federal record around Sabattus is a meaningful one — 524 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (303), 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 Sabattus?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sabattus's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sabattus'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 Sabattus’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sabattus's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 450 acres it covers and 524 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sabattus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sabattus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 25 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 524 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sabattus, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sabattus's boundary and the 450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sabattus's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sabattus 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 Sabattus's 450 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Androscoggin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Androscoggin 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 Androscoggin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sabattus's 450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sabattus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 450 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 Sabattus-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Wider growing context
What grows across MaineSabattus sits outside our named growing regions, so Maine as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides