Berlin, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Berlin, 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 Berlin 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 Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berlin — the short answer
Berlin, New Hampshire: USDA zone 4b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 39K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 39K 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 4b is Berlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berlin's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berlin
Each reading below is measured for Berlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerlin runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBerlin sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Berlin is in
Berlin sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Berlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coos County.
What Grows in Berlin
Every plant below cleared Berlin's own zone 4b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berlin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Documented around Berlin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Berlin 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 Berlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NH-BRW 49Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- BERLIN FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- G H BASS & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- DUCKYS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ARNOLD DROUINUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MUNCES SUPERIOR 110 WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- BERLIN WATER WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- WHITE MOUNTAIN DISTRIBUTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- NEW HAMPSHIRE COMMUNITY TECH COLLEGEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- JERICHO POWER LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- MILAN EXCAVATING INCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berlin'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 Berlin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berlin, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Berlin. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Berlin
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 Berlin average
Your land is one point inside Berlin
Everything above resolves to Berlin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 39K 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 Berlin Average
Berlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Berlin
- ●One soil character for all of Berlin
- ●Frost dates read at Berlin's scale: May 10 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berlin's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berlin, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berlin average
How we know this about Berlin
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 Berlin’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 Berlin
When does frost risk typically end in Berlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berlin typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Berlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berlin typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berlin sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 22, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berlin?
The federal record around Berlin runs heavier than most — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Berlin?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Berlin rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Berlin's scale — its 4b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berlin'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 Berlin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Berlin's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 39,263 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berlin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 6 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berlin, the closest Nitrate record about 2.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berlin's boundary and the 39,263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berlin's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Berlin 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 Berlin's 39,263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coos County
- The growing challenges every New Hampshire grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Hampshire
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Coos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berlin's 39,263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 39,263 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.6 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 Berlin-wide figureread your own land →
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