Westbrook, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Westbrook, 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 Westbrook 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 Westbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Westbrook — the short answer
Westbrook, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Westbrook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westbrook's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westbrook
Each reading below is measured for Westbrook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestbrook runs about 195 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
MeasuredWestbrook 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 Westbrook is in
Westbrook sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Westbrook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Westbrook
Every plant below cleared Westbrook's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westbrook?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Westbrook
Survey cells within 31 miles of Westbrook checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Westbrook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westbrook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LABRIE, SHAWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WESTBROOK-GORHAM WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- EAST BRIDGE STREET PUMPING STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LEHIGH GAS ME0006Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SWANS WILBERT VAULTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BAR COBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- WESTBROOK COMMUNITY CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- FITZGERALD, JOHN LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WASTE MANAGEMENT OF MAINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HANDYMAN EQUIPMENT RENTALBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- DONS TURF DEPOTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- LUCAS TREE EXPERT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westbrook'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 Westbrook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westbrook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westbrook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westbrook, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Westbrook. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Westbrook
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 Westbrook average
Your land is one point inside Westbrook
Everything above resolves to Westbrook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Westbrook Average
Westbrook Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Westbrook
- ●One soil character for all of Westbrook
- ●Frost dates read at Westbrook's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westbrook's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westbrook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westbrook, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westbrook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westbrook average
How we know this about Westbrook
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 Westbrook’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 Westbrook
When does frost risk typically end in Westbrook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westbrook typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Westbrook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westbrook typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westbrook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westbrook sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 12, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westbrook?
The federal record around Westbrook is a meaningful one — 1,177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (588), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Westbrook?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Westbrook's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westbrook'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 Westbrook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Westbrook's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,001 acres it covers and 1,177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westbrook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westbrook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 26 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westbrook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westbrook's boundary and the 11,001 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Westbrook's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Westbrook 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 Westbrook's 11,001 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 Westbrook's 11,001 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westbrook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,001 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Westbrook-wide figureread your own land →