Lebanon, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lebanon, 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 Lebanon 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 Lebanon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lebanon — the short answer
Lebanon, New Hampshire: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 26K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 26K 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 Lebanon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lebanon's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lebanon
Each reading below is measured for Lebanon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLebanon runs about 174 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
MeasuredLebanon 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 Lebanon is in
Lebanon sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lebanon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grafton County.
What Grows in Lebanon
Every plant below cleared Lebanon's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lebanon?
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 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Lebanon
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Lebanon, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lebanon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lebanon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLEEN LAUNDRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PETE & ROGERS OIL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DARTMOUTH COLLEGEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DANIELS TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NORM'S AUTO BODY/ SEAVER'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LEBANON IGAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LEBANON FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Reservoir Hill MineMining · 0.5 mi
- ROYS AUTO SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BROWNS LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JAKES MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALICE PECK DAY MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lebanon'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 Lebanon.
Total Sites
580
within ~10 miles of Lebanon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lebanon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lebanon
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 Lebanon
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 Lebanon average
Your land is one point inside Lebanon
Everything above resolves to Lebanon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 26K 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 Lebanon Average
Lebanon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lebanon
- ●One soil character for all of Lebanon
- ●Frost dates read at Lebanon's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lebanon's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lebanon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lebanon, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lebanon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lebanon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lebanon average
How we know this about Lebanon
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 Lebanon’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 Lebanon
When does frost risk typically end in Lebanon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lebanon 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.
When is the first frost in Lebanon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lebanon typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lebanon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lebanon sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 5, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lebanon?
The federal record around Lebanon is a meaningful one — 580 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (267), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lebanon?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lebanon's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lebanon'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 Lebanon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lebanon's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,795 acres it covers and 580 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lebanon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lebanon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 19 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 580 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lebanon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lebanon's boundary and the 25,795 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lebanon's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lebanonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lebanon's 25,795 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grafton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grafton 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 Grafton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lebanon's 25,795 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lebanon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,795 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 Lebanon-wide figureread your own land →