York Harbor, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 York Harbor, 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 York Harbor 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 York Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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York Harbor — the short answer
York Harbor, Maine: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- 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 6a is York Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against York Harbor's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in York Harbor
Each reading below is measured for York Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYork Harbor runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredYork Harbor 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 York Harbor is in
York Harbor sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at York Harbor's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in York Harbor
Every plant below cleared York Harbor's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in York Harbor?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around York Harbor
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from York Harbor, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near York Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of York Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRAGDON INSURANCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MILE 8 MAINTENANCE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- U S ROUTE 1 MDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- YORK VILLAGE FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 5567/1801Brownfields · 750 ft
- OFFICE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WOODBRIDGE SQUAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FAIRPOINT COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- YORK HOSPITAL-YORKBrownfields · 900 ft
- YORK HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- YORK SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- YORK WATER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from York Harbor'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 York Harbor.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of York Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of York Harbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around York Harbor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of York Harbor — Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in York Harbor
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 York Harbor average
Your land is one point inside York Harbor
Everything above resolves to York Harbor 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 York Harbor Average
York Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across York Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of York Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at York Harbor's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not York Harbor's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in York Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in York Harbor, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that York Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around York Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the York Harbor average
How we know this about York Harbor
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 York Harbor’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 York Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in York Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in York Harbor typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in York Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in York Harbor typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in York Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, York Harbor sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 18, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in York Harbor?
The federal record around York Harbor is a meaningful one — 440 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (233), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 York Harbor?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at York Harbor's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of York Harbor'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 York Harbor’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at York Harbor's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,052 acres it covers and 440 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- York Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- York Harbor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 1 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 440 documented contamination sites on the federal record near York Harbor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- York Harbor's boundary and the 2,052 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at York Harbor's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of York Harborlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so York Harbor's 2,052 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among York Harbor's 2,052 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of York Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,052 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 York Harbor-wide figureread your own land →
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