South Paris, 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 South Paris, 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 South Paris 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 South Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Paris — the short answer
South Paris, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- 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 5b is South Paris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Paris's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Paris
Each reading below is measured for South Paris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Paris runs about 180 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
MeasuredSouth Paris 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 South Paris is in
South Paris sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at South Paris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oxford County.
What Grows in South Paris
Every plant below cleared South Paris's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Paris?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 South Paris
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from South Paris, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Paris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Paris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUMBERLAND FARMS INC 1821Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RIPLEY & FLETCHER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BIG APPLE SOUTH PARISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RIPLEY & FLETCHER COBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SOUTH PARIS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CN BROWN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- OXFORD COUNTY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KMK FUEL & CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 3 D CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HAMMONDS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- C N BROWNBrownfields · 1600 ft
- BISBEES LUBE & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Paris'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 South Paris.
Total Sites
226
within ~10 miles of South Paris
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Paris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Paris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Paris, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Paris — Mining (22 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (147 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in South Paris
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 South Paris average
Your land is one point inside South Paris
Everything above resolves to South Paris 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 South Paris Average
South Paris Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across South Paris
- ●One soil character for all of South Paris
- ●Frost dates read at South Paris's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Paris's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Paris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Paris, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Paris averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Paris average
How we know this about South Paris
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 South Paris’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 South Paris
When does frost risk typically end in South Paris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Paris typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in South Paris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Paris typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Paris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Paris sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 5, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Paris?
The federal record around South Paris is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (147), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 South Paris?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Paris's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Paris'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 South Paris’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Paris's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,481 acres it covers and 226 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Paris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Paris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 19 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 226 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Paris, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Paris's boundary and the 2,481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Paris's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Parislydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Paris's 2,481 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oxford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oxford 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 Oxford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Paris's 2,481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Paris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,481 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 South Paris-wide figureread your own land →