Searsport, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Searsport, 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 Searsport 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 Searsport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Searsport — the short answer
Searsport, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Searsport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Searsport's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Searsport
Each reading below is measured for Searsport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSearsport 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
MeasuredSearsport 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 Searsport is in
Searsport sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Searsport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waldo County.
What Grows in Searsport
Every plant below cleared Searsport'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 Searsport?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Searsport
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Searsport, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Searsport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Searsport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEARSPORT BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- IRVING SEARSPORT BIG STOPBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MARITIME FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- STEAMBOAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SEARSPORT INTEGRATIVE MEDICINEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- HAMILTON MARINEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- IRVING OIL TERMINALS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MERRILL TRANSPORT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SEARSPORT PIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ME-WOW92 HHID 097 HETLID B027259 RECRUITID 130Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- US DEFENSE LOGISTICS FUEL SUPPORT POINTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Searsport'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 Searsport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Searsport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Searsport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Searsport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Searsport — Mining (27 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Searsport
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 Searsport average
Your land is one point inside Searsport
Everything above resolves to Searsport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Searsport Average
Searsport Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Searsport
- ●One soil character for all of Searsport
- ●Frost dates read at Searsport's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Searsport's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Searsport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Searsport, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Searsport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Searsport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Searsport average
How we know this about Searsport
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 Searsport’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 Searsport
When does frost risk typically end in Searsport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Searsport typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Searsport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Searsport typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Searsport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Searsport sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 13, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Searsport?
The federal record around Searsport is a meaningful one — 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Searsport?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Searsport's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Searsport'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 Searsport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Searsport's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,785 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Searsport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Searsport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 27 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Searsport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Searsport's boundary and the 2,785 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 Searsport's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Searsportlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Searsport's 2,785 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waldo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waldo 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 Waldo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Searsport's 2,785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Searsport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,785 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Searsport-wide figureread your own land →
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