Melville, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Melville, 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 Melville 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 Melville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melville — the short answer
Melville, Rhode Island: USDA zone 7a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 7a is Melville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melville's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melville
Each reading below is measured for Melville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelville runs about 238 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
MeasuredMelville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Melville is in
Melville sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newport County.
What Grows in Melville
Every plant below cleared Melville's own zone 7a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Melville
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Melville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Melville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEWPORT NAVAL EDUCATION & TRAINING CENTERSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- DOD/NETC/TANK FARM 3Superfund · 0.6 mi
- STEVE'S AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OVERLOOK POINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LAWTON VALLEY WATER TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HINCKLEY YACHT SERVICESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC TRANSIT AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- J A M CONSTRUCTION GARAGEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ST. COLUMBA'S CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ST COLUMBA CEMETERYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- LORD WILLIAM DC INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- WANUMETONOMY GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melville'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 Melville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Melville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Melville
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 Melville average
Your land is one point inside Melville
Everything above resolves to Melville 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 Melville Average
Melville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Melville
- ●One soil character for all of Melville
- ●Frost dates read at Melville's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melville, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melville average
How we know this about Melville
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 Melville’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 Melville
When does frost risk typically end in Melville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melville typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Melville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melville typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melville sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 7, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melville?
The federal record around Melville is a meaningful one — 1,241 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (513), the nearest Superfund record about 0.6 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 Melville?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melville's scale — its 7a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melville'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 Melville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Melville's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,343 acres it covers and 1,241 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 21 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,241 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melville, the closest Superfund record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melville's boundary and the 1,343 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melville's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Melvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Melville's 1,343 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Newport County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Newport 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 Newport County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melville's 1,343 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,343 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.6 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 Melville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandMelville sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides