Central Falls, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Central Falls, 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 Central Falls 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 Central Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Central Falls — the short answer
Central Falls, Rhode Island: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 764 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 764 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 6b is Central Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Central Falls's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Central Falls
Each reading below is measured for Central Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCentral Falls runs about 224 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
MeasuredCentral Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Central Falls is in
Central Falls sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Central Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Providence County.
What Grows in Central Falls
Every plant below cleared Central Falls's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Central Falls?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Central Falls
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Central Falls, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Central Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Central Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHAMP'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- GERRYS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 800 ft
- GARAGE - LOI VAN DUONG PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PUBLIC SAFETY CTR. - FIRE DEPT/POLICE DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CHATEAU ANNE APARTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AZAR'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CENTRAL CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JOHN J. NISSEN BAKING CO., INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KING'S SERVICE CENTER, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CARTIE'S HEALTH CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CENTRAL FALLS CREDIT UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NAVIGANT CREDIT UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Central Falls'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 Central Falls.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Central Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Central Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Central Falls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Central Falls — Toxics Release Inventory (350 sites) and Superfund (55 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Central Falls
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 Central Falls average
Your land is one point inside Central Falls
Everything above resolves to Central Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 764 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 Central Falls Average
Central Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Central Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Central Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Central Falls's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Central Falls's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Central Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Central Falls, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Central Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Central Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Central Falls average
How we know this about Central Falls
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 Central Falls’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 Central Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Central Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Central Falls typically lands around Mar 30, 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 Apr 20.
When is the first frost in Central Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Central Falls typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Central Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Central Falls sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Central Falls?
The federal record around Central Falls runs heavier than most — 4,249 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,010), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Central Falls?
From about Oct 10 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 Nov 9 (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 Nov 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Central Falls's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Central Falls'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 Central Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Central Falls's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 764 acres it covers and 4,249 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Central Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Central Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,249 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Central Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Central Falls's boundary and the 764 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Central Falls's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Central Fallslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Central Falls's 764 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Providence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Providence County
- The growing challenges every Rhode Island grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Rhode Island
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Providence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Central Falls's 764 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Central Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 764 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Central Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandCentral Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides