Cheshire County, in 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Cheshire County lies within the Monadnock Region — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cheshire County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cheshire County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Cheshire County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cheshire County — the short answer
Cheshire County, New Hampshire: USDA zone 5b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 452K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 452K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Cheshire County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheshire County's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cheshire County
Across a year, Cheshire County accumulates about 2,119 growing degree days above 50°F, about 89 more than the middle New Hampshire county — ahead of 5 of New Hampshire’s 10 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Cheshire County
Across Cheshire County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Marlow, Tunbridge, and Berkshire are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cheshire County
The USDA soil survey maps 62% of Cheshire County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 10% somewhat excessively drained, 8% moderately well drained.
Marlow is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Tunbridge (13%) and Berkshire (12%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Cheshire County
Each reading below is measured for Cheshire County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Cheshire County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cheshire County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCheshire County runs about 169 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
MeasuredCheshire County 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 Cheshire County is in
Cheshire County sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Cheshire County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cheshire County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 169-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile.
Is it too late to plant in Cheshire County?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Cheshire County
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Cheshire County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle54 documented records
- monarch butterfly310 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cheshire County
USGS estimates 1,166 lb of Glyphosate on Cheshire County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (970 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (743 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Cheshire County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cheshire County — 590 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Cheshire County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cheshire County
Closest first, across Cheshire County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VA HEALTHCARE SYSTEM - KEENE COMMUNITY BASEDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WETTERAU INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUNSET TOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ES3 CORPORATE HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TIMKEN AEROSPACE & SUPER PRECISION BEARINGSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- TIMKEN AEROSPACE & SUPER PRECISION BEARINGSToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- MPB CORP (DBA TIMKEN AEROSPACE)Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- MPB CORP (DBA TIMKEN AEROSPACE)Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- EVS METALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- EVS METALBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF KEENE FLEET SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PRECITECH INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheshire County'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 Cheshire County.
Sources Checked
across Cheshire County
Severity Distribution
across Cheshire County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Cheshire County
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 Cheshire County average
Your land is one point inside Cheshire County
Everything above resolves to Cheshire County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 452K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Cheshire County Average
Cheshire County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cheshire County
- ●One soil character for all of Cheshire County
- ●Frost dates read at Cheshire County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheshire County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cheshire County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheshire County, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheshire County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheshire County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheshire County average
How we know this about Cheshire County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Cheshire County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cheshire County
When does frost risk typically end in Cheshire County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheshire County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Cheshire County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheshire County sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 30, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheshire County?
The federal record around Cheshire County is a meaningful one — 590 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (320), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Cheshire County's scale — its 5b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheshire County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New Hampshire's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Cheshire County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cheshire County's own scale — its own ~169-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 590 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheshire County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheshire County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cheshire CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 590 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cheshire County's boundary and the 452,303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cheshire County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cheshire County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cheshire County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New Hampshire grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Hampshire
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Cheshire County — the ~169 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cheshire County's 452,303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 590 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Cheshire Countyread your own land →