Charlestown, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Charlestown, 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 Charlestown 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 Charlestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charlestown — the short answer
Charlestown, New Hampshire: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 610 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 610 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 Charlestown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlestown's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charlestown
Each reading below is measured for Charlestown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCharlestown runs about 177 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
MeasuredCharlestown 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 Charlestown is in
Charlestown sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Charlestown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Charlestown
Every plant below cleared Charlestown's own zone 5b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Charlestown?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Charlestown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Charlestown, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Charlestown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charlestown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLESTOWN JIFFY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STAGE ROAD AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DEAN HILL MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BATCHELDER BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 14774Brownfields · 1100 ft
- JIFFY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- POISSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHARLESTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHARLESTOWN MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHARLESTOWN HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BOMAR DIVISION OF POMPANETTEToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- BOMAR DIVISION OF POMPANETTEBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charlestown'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 Charlestown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charlestown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charlestown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlestown, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Charlestown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Charlestown
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 Charlestown average
Your land is one point inside Charlestown
Everything above resolves to Charlestown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 610 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 Charlestown Average
Charlestown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Charlestown
- ●One soil character for all of Charlestown
- ●Frost dates read at Charlestown's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlestown's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charlestown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlestown, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlestown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlestown average
How we know this about Charlestown
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 Charlestown’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 Charlestown
When does frost risk typically end in Charlestown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charlestown typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Charlestown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charlestown typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Charlestown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charlestown sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 4, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charlestown?
The federal record around Charlestown is a meaningful one — 369 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (195), 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 Charlestown?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Charlestown's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charlestown'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 Charlestown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Charlestown's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 610 acres it covers and 369 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlestown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charlestown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 18 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 369 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charlestown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charlestown's boundary and the 610 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Charlestown's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Charlestownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Charlestown's 610 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charlestown's 610 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charlestown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 610 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 Charlestown-wide figureread your own land →
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