Hampton, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hampton, 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 Hampton 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 Hampton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hampton — the short answer
Hampton, New Hampshire: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Hampton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hampton's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hampton
Each reading below is measured for Hampton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHampton 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
MeasuredHampton 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 Hampton is in
Hampton sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hampton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockingham County.
What Grows in Hampton
Every plant below cleared Hampton's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hampton?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Hampton
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Hampton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hampton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hampton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARSTON SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FRANK FITZGERALD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- G M S EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HESS 29202-LUCIER HOLDINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GETTY STATION 55260Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- XTRA MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HAMPTON CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- OCEANSIDE CENTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- LYMANS AUTO & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HANNAFORD FOOD & DRUG 8319Brownfields · 2300 ft
- SCOTT PONTIACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WALGREENS 3174Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hampton'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 Hampton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hampton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hampton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hampton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hampton — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hampton
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 Hampton average
Your land is one point inside Hampton
Everything above resolves to Hampton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Hampton Average
Hampton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hampton
- ●One soil character for all of Hampton
- ●Frost dates read at Hampton's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hampton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hampton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hampton, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hampton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hampton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hampton average
How we know this about Hampton
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 Hampton’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 Hampton
When does frost risk typically end in Hampton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hampton typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Hampton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hampton typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hampton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hampton sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 17, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hampton?
The federal record around Hampton runs heavier than most — 888 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (406), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Hampton?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hampton's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hampton'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 Hampton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hampton's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,485 acres it covers and 888 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hampton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hampton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 31 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 888 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hampton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hampton's boundary and the 3,485 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 Hampton's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hamptonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hampton's 3,485 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rockingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rockingham 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 Rockingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hampton's 3,485 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hampton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,485 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hampton-wide figureread your own land →