Gorham, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gorham, 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 Gorham 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 Gorham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gorham — the short answer
Gorham, New Hampshire: USDA zone 5a, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Gorham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gorham's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gorham
Each reading below is measured for Gorham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGorham runs about 158 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
MeasuredGorham sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Gorham is in
Gorham sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Gorham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coos County.
What Grows in Gorham
Every plant below cleared Gorham's own zone 5a and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gorham?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Gorham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gorham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NH-GOW 1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- GORHAM CIRCLE KUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VASHAWS VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FMR. GORHAM CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PEOPLES CHOICE REST (NOW SANDYS COVE)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GORHAM SAND & GRAVEL PIKE INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- GORHAM SAND & GRAVEL PIKE INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- CURRIER SALES AND SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHAMPOUX MOBIL FRM MOES VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GORHAM SAND & GRAVEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PIKE INDUSTRIES INC P805Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NORTH COUNTRY ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gorham'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 Gorham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gorham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gorham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gorham, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Gorham. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Gorham
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 Gorham average
Your land is one point inside Gorham
Everything above resolves to Gorham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Gorham Average
Gorham Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Gorham
- ●One soil character for all of Gorham
- ●Frost dates read at Gorham's scale: May 3 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gorham's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gorham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gorham, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gorham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gorham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gorham average
How we know this about Gorham
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 Gorham’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 Gorham
When does frost risk typically end in Gorham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gorham typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Gorham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gorham typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gorham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gorham sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 24, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gorham?
The federal record around Gorham is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Gorham?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gorham's scale — its 5a band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gorham'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 Gorham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gorham's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,077 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gorham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gorham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 8 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gorham, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gorham's boundary and the 1,077 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gorham's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gorham's 1,077 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 Gorham's 1,077 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gorham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,077 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Gorham-wide figureread your own land →
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