Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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 Wolfeboro, 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 Wolfeboro 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 Wolfeboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wolfeboro — the short answer
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Wolfeboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wolfeboro's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wolfeboro
Each reading below is measured for Wolfeboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWolfeboro runs about 185 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
MeasuredWolfeboro 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 Wolfeboro is in
Wolfeboro sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Wolfeboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in Wolfeboro
Every plant below cleared Wolfeboro's own zone 5b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Hampshire profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wolfeboro?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Wolfeboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Wolfeboro, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wolfeboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wolfeboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF WOLFEBORO PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NORRIS-HARRIMAN CONSTRUCT COBrownfields · 1900 ft
- WOLFEBORO WWTFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ACCIDENTS HAPPEN AUTO BODY LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- FORMER CTP PETROLEUM COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WESLEY COMMONS CONDO FMR RSA DEVELOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LESLIE RANKIN TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ADULT & PEDIATRIC DERMATOLOGY PCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MILL STREET PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ELECTRIC DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FAIRPOINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CLARKE PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wolfeboro'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 Wolfeboro.
Total Sites
276
within ~10 miles of Wolfeboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wolfeboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wolfeboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wolfeboro, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 116 sites within ~10 miles of Wolfeboro. 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 Wolfeboro
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 Wolfeboro average
Your land is one point inside Wolfeboro
Everything above resolves to Wolfeboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Wolfeboro Average
Wolfeboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wolfeboro
- ●One soil character for all of Wolfeboro
- ●Frost dates read at Wolfeboro's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wolfeboro's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wolfeboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wolfeboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wolfeboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wolfeboro average
How we know this about Wolfeboro
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 Wolfeboro’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 Wolfeboro
When does frost risk typically end in Wolfeboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wolfeboro typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Wolfeboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wolfeboro typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wolfeboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wolfeboro sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 9, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wolfeboro?
The federal record around Wolfeboro is a meaningful one — 276 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wolfeboro?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wolfeboro's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wolfeboro'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 Wolfeboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wolfeboro's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,031 acres it covers and 276 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wolfeboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wolfeboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 23 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 276 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wolfeboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wolfeboro's boundary and the 5,031 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wolfeboro's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wolfeborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wolfeboro's 5,031 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wolfeboro's 5,031 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wolfeboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,031 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wolfeboro-wide figureread your own land →