Foster Center, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Foster Center, 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 Foster Center 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 Foster Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Foster Center — the short answer
Foster Center, Rhode Island: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Foster Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Foster Center's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Foster Center
Each reading below is measured for Foster Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFoster Center runs about 200 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
MeasuredFoster Center 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 Foster Center is in
Foster Center sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Foster Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Providence County.
What Grows in Foster Center
Every plant below cleared Foster Center's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Foster Center?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Foster Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Foster Center, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Foster Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Foster Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W.W. GRASS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FOSTER TOWN LANDFILLSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- TOWN OF FOSTER P.W.D.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WELLONE PRIMARY MEDICAL AND DENTAL CAREBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- STAR PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NANCY ANN NURSING HOME, INC.Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- FOSTER MALL MOBIL (JUSTEDSON)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DRAKE PETROLEUM - FOSTERBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SUPREME POOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DOLLY COLE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- FOSTER COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Foster Center'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 Foster Center.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Foster Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Foster Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Foster Center, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Foster Center. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Foster Center
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 Foster Center average
Your land is one point inside Foster Center
Everything above resolves to Foster Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Foster Center Average
Foster Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Foster Center
- ●One soil character for all of Foster Center
- ●Frost dates read at Foster Center's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Foster Center's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Foster Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Foster Center, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Foster Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Foster Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Foster Center average
How we know this about Foster Center
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 Foster Center’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 Foster Center
When does frost risk typically end in Foster Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Foster Center typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Foster Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Foster Center typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Foster Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Foster Center sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 16, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Foster Center?
The federal record around Foster Center is a meaningful one — 396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Foster Center?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Foster Center's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Foster Center'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 Foster Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Foster Center's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,388 acres it covers and 396 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Foster Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Foster Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 30 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 396 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Foster Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Foster Center's boundary and the 1,388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Foster Center's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Foster Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Foster Center's 1,388 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 Foster Center's 1,388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Foster Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Foster Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandFoster Center sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides