Rhode Island spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-7b, with a growing season of about 225 frost-free days — time enough for slow-finishing crops, second sowings, and a genuine fall garden.
The growing year is built on 44-52 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 2,635 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 2,500 winter chill hours for tree fruit, and every crop choice answers to them. Most ground here falls among glacial till, sandy loam, coastal sand, and river silt, whose drainage habits quietly decide which beds flourish. Rhode Island is not one growing region but several — from Block Island and South County — each with its own zone band and frost timing. Well-matched crops include tomato, blueberry, red maple, and garlic, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Rhode Island spans zones 6b-7b, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Rhode Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Rhode Island — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Rhode Island: USDA zones 6b-7b, about 225 frost-free days in a typical county, 5 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze.
Rhode Island does not have one growing season. Across all 36 of its towns that carry their own 30-year record, the shortest measured season is Clayville's at 200 days and the longest is Newport's at 246 — a 46-day spread inside one state.
Neither end is a lone reading — another 8 towns measure within 10 days of Clayville and 4 sit within 10 days of Newport. These are real pockets, so the number to plant against is your own town's, not the state average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record
Zone 6b-7b is Rhode Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rhode Island's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
The soil types that dominate Rhode Island — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Variable by the shovelful. Sandy till drains freely; dense, compacted till (hardpan) can perch water above it after snowmelt and heavy rain.
What thrives
Apples, stone fruits, brambles, and the whole northern vegetable garden do well on till — much of New England and the upper Midwest farms it. Deep-rooted perennials work through the stony structure happily.
Drainage
Fast. The sand fraction opens the soil up, so water moves through the root zone quickly and the surface rarely stays soggy. The trade is that nutrients ride out with the water.
What thrives
Root crops love it — carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions size up cleanly in ground they can push through. Melons, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and most herbs appreciate the warmth and the drainage.
Drainage
Extremely fast. Rain and irrigation vanish through it almost as fast as they land.
What thrives
Salt-tough plants earn their keep here: beach plum, bayberry, seaside goldenrod, rugosa roses, and hardy herbs like rosemary. Vegetables produce well in amended beds sheltered from the wind.
The fine fraction of a river’s load — smooth, fertile silt spread across valley floors and bottomlands by generations of floods.
Drainage
Moderate. It holds moisture generously through dry spells; in the lowest bottomland positions it can stay wet late into spring.
What thrives
Bottomland silt grows legendary sweet corn, squash, melons, and greens — the moisture-holding fertility suits big, thirsty crops.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Rhode Island's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Across Rhode Island, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Mar 31, with the middle half of counties between Mar 27 and Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 7 and Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
The plants Rhode Island put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Violet
Viola
Designated 1968.
Acer rubrum
Designated 1964. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Rhode Island Greening Apple
Designated 1991.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Rhode Island — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Rhode Island’s zones 6b-7b, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Rhode Island’s USDA zones 6b-7b but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Small lot sizes limit garden space in much of the state
Small ground grows big in containers and vertical beds — a well-planned patio out-yields a neglected quarter acre.
Salt spray affects coastal plantings
Put salt-tolerant species on the front line and a windbreak behind them to take the coastal spray.
Rocky glacial soils need clearing
Skip the rock harvest — a raised bed over cleared ground starts clean and productive the same weekend.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Rhode Island, the URI Cooperative Extension is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Rhode Island — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Rhode Island — 7,250 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 141 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Rhode Island carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources Checked
across Rhode Island
Severity Distribution
across Rhode Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rhode Island, two things run higher than the national average across Rhode Island — Superfund (141 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (446 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Rhode Island as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 6b-7b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Rhode Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rhode Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rhode Island average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Rhode Island spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-7b — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about −5°F to 10°F depending where in Rhode Island you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Across Rhode Island, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Mar 31, with the middle half of counties between Mar 27 and Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 7 and Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Across Rhode Island, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Mar 27 and Apr 3, with a county median near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 Apr 21.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Rhode Island's counties mostly run about 221 to 239 days, with a county median near 225 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Rhode Island's zones 6b-7b support a wide range — strong performers include Tomato, Blueberry, Red Maple, Garlic, and Violet. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Rhode Island spans USDA zones 6b-7b (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Rhode Island runs heavier than most — 7,250 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,386) — 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.
Start with three facts. Rhode Island spans USDA zones 6b-7b, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Mar 27 to Apr 3 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 7,250 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Rhode Island's scale — its 6b-7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rhode Island's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Rhode Island's own scale — the full zone 6b-7b span inside its borders, the 4 soil types that dominate its ground and 7,250 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island shares its dominant growing region with these states — a useful comparison if you're weighing where a crop will behave the same way.
