Steep Falls, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Steep Falls, 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 Steep Falls 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 Steep Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Steep Falls — the short answer
Steep Falls, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 5a is Steep Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Steep Falls's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Steep Falls
Each reading below is measured for Steep Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSteep Falls runs about 171 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
MeasuredSteep Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Steep Falls is in
Steep Falls sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Steep Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Steep Falls
Every plant below cleared Steep Falls's own zone 5a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Steep Falls?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Steep Falls
Survey cells within 31 miles of Steep Falls checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Steep Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Steep Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YOUNG, CHARLENE EUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ME-CW 2020Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- F E WOOD & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MARTINOS SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SNIP & CHIP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CW 1355Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- WOOD F E & SONSBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- CW 1366Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- ME-CW2029 HHID 003 HETLID B024865 RECRUITID 003Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- YW 793Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- STANDISH QUICK STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MAINE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Steep Falls'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 Steep Falls.
Total Sites
286
within ~10 miles of Steep Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Steep Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Steep Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Steep Falls, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 136 sites within ~10 miles of Steep Falls. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Steep Falls
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 Steep Falls average
Your land is one point inside Steep Falls
Everything above resolves to Steep Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Steep Falls Average
Steep Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Steep Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Steep Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Steep Falls's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Steep Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Steep Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Steep Falls, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Steep Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Steep Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Steep Falls average
How we know this about Steep Falls
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 Steep Falls’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 Steep Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Steep Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Steep Falls typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Steep Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Steep Falls typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Steep Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Steep Falls sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 2, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Steep Falls?
The federal record around Steep Falls is a meaningful one — 286 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (136), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Steep Falls?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Steep Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Steep Falls'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 Steep Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Steep Falls's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,422 acres it covers and 286 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Steep Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Steep Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 16 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 286 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Steep Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Steep Falls's boundary and the 6,422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Steep Falls's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Steep Falls 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 Steep Falls's 6,422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Steep Falls's 6,422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Steep Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Steep Falls-wide figureread your own land →