Keene, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Keene, 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 Keene 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 Keene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keene — the short answer
Keene, New Hampshire: USDA zone 5b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 24K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 24K 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 Keene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keene's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keene
Each reading below is measured for Keene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeene 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
MeasuredKeene 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 Keene is in
Keene sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Keene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cheshire County.
What Grows in Keene
Every plant below cleared Keene's own zone 5b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keene?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Keene
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Keene, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Keene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NH-KEW 45Nitrate · 1600 ft
- COURT STREET VETERINARY HOSPITALBrownfields · 2600 ft
- GENESIS KEENE CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 32504Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NH-KEW 33Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- WKNEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PAKS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WINDING BROOK LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TUCKERS POWER EQUIPMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TUCKERS POWER EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DARTMOUTH HEALTHBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CHESHIRE MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keene'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 Keene.
Total Sites
340
within ~10 miles of Keene
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keene
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 Keene
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 Keene average
Your land is one point inside Keene
Everything above resolves to Keene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 24K 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 Keene Average
Keene Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Keene
- ●One soil character for all of Keene
- ●Frost dates read at Keene's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keene's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keene, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keene average
How we know this about Keene
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 Keene’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 Keene
When does frost risk typically end in Keene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keene typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Keene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keene typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keene sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 1, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keene?
The federal record around Keene is a meaningful one — 340 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (177), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Keene?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keene's scale — its 5b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keene'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 Keene’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Keene's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,739 acres it covers and 340 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 15 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 340 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keene, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keene's boundary and the 23,739 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keene's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Keenelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keene's 23,739 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cheshire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cheshire 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 Cheshire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keene's 23,739 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,739 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Keene-wide figureread your own land →
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