Greenville, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Greenville, 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 Greenville 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 Greenville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Greenville — the short answer
Greenville, Rhode Island: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- 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 Greenville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greenville's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greenville
Each reading below is measured for Greenville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreenville runs about 215 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
MeasuredGreenville 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 Greenville is in
Greenville sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Greenville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Providence County.
What Grows in Greenville
Every plant below cleared Greenville's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greenville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Greenville
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Greenville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Greenville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greenville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLIMAJ SCOTT BBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SMITHFIELD HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DAVE'S GARAGE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALI T. ALI, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLEAN HARBORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SMITHFIELD TOWN OF PUBLIC WORKS DEPTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- STANDARD SPRAYToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- SMITHFIELD DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- INDUSTRIAL REALTY CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PRECISION TURNINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DUTCH AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BIOWASTE LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greenville'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 Greenville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greenville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greenville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greenville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Greenville — Toxics Release Inventory (261 sites) and Superfund (52 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Greenville
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 Greenville average
Your land is one point inside Greenville
Everything above resolves to Greenville 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 Greenville Average
Greenville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Greenville
- ●One soil character for all of Greenville
- ●Frost dates read at Greenville's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greenville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greenville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greenville, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greenville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greenville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greenville average
How we know this about Greenville
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 Greenville’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 Greenville
When does frost risk typically end in Greenville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greenville typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Greenville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greenville typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greenville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greenville sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greenville?
The federal record around Greenville runs heavier than most — 3,212 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,677), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles 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 Greenville?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greenville's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greenville'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 Greenville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Greenville's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,557 acres it covers and 3,212 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greenville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greenville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 5 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,212 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greenville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greenville's boundary and the 3,557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greenville's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Greenvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Greenville's 3,557 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 Greenville's 3,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greenville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Greenville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandGreenville sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides