Waldoboro, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Waldoboro, 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 Waldoboro 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 Waldoboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waldoboro — the short answer
Waldoboro, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- 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 6a is Waldoboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waldoboro's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waldoboro
Each reading below is measured for Waldoboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaldoboro runs about 199 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
MeasuredWaldoboro 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 Waldoboro is in
Waldoboro sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waldoboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Waldoboro
Every plant below cleared Waldoboro's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waldoboro?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 31 — 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 Waldoboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waldoboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waldoboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waldoboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VERIZON WALDOBORO COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SNS PLASTICS CO INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SNS PLASTICS CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- BROWN HOMESTEAD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TOP OF THE HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GORDON A LIBBY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JEFFERSON UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BARNES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WALDOBORO FAMILY MEDICINEBrownfields · 2400 ft
- OSRAM SYLVANIA - CLOSEDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- OSRAM SYLVANIA - CLOSEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- OSRAM SYLVANIA PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waldoboro'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 Waldoboro.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Waldoboro
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waldoboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waldoboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waldoboro, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 79 sites within ~10 miles of Waldoboro. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Waldoboro
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 Waldoboro average
Your land is one point inside Waldoboro
Everything above resolves to Waldoboro 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 Waldoboro Average
Waldoboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Waldoboro
- ●One soil character for all of Waldoboro
- ●Frost dates read at Waldoboro's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waldoboro's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waldoboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waldoboro, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waldoboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waldoboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waldoboro average
How we know this about Waldoboro
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 Waldoboro’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 Waldoboro
When does frost risk typically end in Waldoboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waldoboro 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 Waldoboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waldoboro typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waldoboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waldoboro sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 17, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waldoboro?
The federal record around Waldoboro shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Waldoboro?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waldoboro's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waldoboro'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 Waldoboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waldoboro's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,453 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waldoboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waldoboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 31 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waldoboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waldoboro's boundary and the 3,453 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waldoboro's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waldoboro 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 Waldoboro's 3,453 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waldoboro's 3,453 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waldoboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,453 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 Waldoboro-wide figureread your own land →
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