Greene, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Greene, 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 Greene 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 Greene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greene — the short answer
Greene, Rhode Island: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Greene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greene's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greene
Each reading below is measured for Greene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreene runs about 203 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
MeasuredGreene 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 Greene is in
Greene sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Greene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Greene
Every plant below cleared Greene's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greene?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Greene
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Greene, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Greene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTERN COVENTRY FIRE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- KING FASTENER CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- PPICILLO PIG FARM SUPERFUND SITEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- PPICILLO PIG FARM SUPERFUND SITESuperfund · 2.5 mi
- WEEKS HILL AUTO LTDBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- WOODPECKER HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- WOODPECKER HILL NURSING HOMEBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- RI-FOW 291Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- ROLAND LEVOIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CT-SG 10Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- FOSTER COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greene'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 Greene.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greene, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Greene. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Greene
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 Greene average
Your land is one point inside Greene
Everything above resolves to Greene as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Greene Average
Greene Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Greene
- ●One soil character for all of Greene
- ●Frost dates read at Greene's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greene's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greene, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greene average
How we know this about Greene
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 Greene’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 Greene
When does frost risk typically end in Greene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greene typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Greene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greene typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greene sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greene?
The federal record around Greene is a meaningful one — 435 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (185), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Greene?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greene's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greene'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 Greene’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Greene's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,887 acres it covers and 435 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 31 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 435 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greene, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greene's boundary and the 3,887 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greene's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Greenelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Greene's 3,887 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kent 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 Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greene's 3,887 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,887 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Greene-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandGreene sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides