Saco, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Saco, 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 Saco 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 Saco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saco — the short answer
Saco, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 25K 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 Saco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saco's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saco
Each reading below is measured for Saco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaco runs about 200 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
MeasuredSaco 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 Saco is in
Saco sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Saco's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Saco
Every plant below cleared Saco's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saco?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Saco
Survey cells within 31 miles of Saco 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 Saco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SACO IRVING MAINWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NEW ENGLAND INDUSTRIAL TRUCK - MAINEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FUNTOWN USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CIRCLE K #7053Brownfields · 1900 ft
- PATRIOT SUBARUBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CASCADE WATER PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- IRA HONDA-SACOBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CLAIR VOLKSWAGONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- JACK CHRYSLER DODGE JEEP RAMBrownfields · 2600 ft
- PRIME COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 2600 ft
- IRA COLLISION CENTER NORTHBrownfields · 2600 ft
- C. N. BROWN COMPANYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saco'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 Saco.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saco, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Saco. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Saco
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 Saco average
Your land is one point inside Saco
Everything above resolves to Saco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 25K 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 city 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 Saco Average
Saco Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Saco
- ●One soil character for all of Saco
- ●Frost dates read at Saco's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saco's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saco, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saco average
How we know this about Saco
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Saco’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Saco
When does frost risk typically end in Saco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saco typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Saco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saco typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saco sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 14, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saco?
The federal record around Saco is a meaningful one — 655 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (303), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Saco?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saco's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saco'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 Saco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Saco's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 24,694 acres it covers and 655 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 28 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 655 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saco's boundary and the 24,694 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saco's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Saco 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 Saco's 24,694 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saco's 24,694 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 24,694 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Saco-wide figureread your own land →
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