Newport East, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Newport East, 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 Newport East 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 Newport East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newport East — the short answer
Newport East, Rhode Island: USDA zone 7a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- 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 7a is Newport East's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newport East's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newport East
Each reading below is measured for Newport East itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewport East runs about 243 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
MeasuredNewport East 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 Newport East is in
Newport East sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newport East's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newport County.
What Grows in Newport East
Every plant below cleared Newport East's own zone 7a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newport East?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Newport East
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Newport East, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newport East
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newport East. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J.D. MELLO, JR., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TOM FARREA'S ENTERPRISE AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOSEPH H. GAUDET SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VIVE COLLISION DBA CROWN COLLISION CENTER - MIDDLETOWNBrownfields · 1300 ft
- I V G CONSTRUCTION CO INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- I.V.G. CONSTRUCTION CO. (FORMERLY)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TAYLOR RENTAL CENTERBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ASPIRE DERMATOLOGYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FRAZIER P GREGORY DDSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CAHILL THOMAS F MDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- RELIABLE OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TIVERTON INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newport East'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 Newport East.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newport East
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newport East
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newport East, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Newport East. 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 Newport East
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 Newport East average
Your land is one point inside Newport East
Everything above resolves to Newport East 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 Newport East Average
Newport East Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Newport East
- ●One soil character for all of Newport East
- ●Frost dates read at Newport East's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newport East's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newport East
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newport East, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newport East averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newport East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newport East average
How we know this about Newport East
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 Newport East’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 Newport East
When does frost risk typically end in Newport East?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newport East typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Newport East?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newport East typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newport East?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newport East sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 10, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newport East?
The federal record around Newport East is a meaningful one — 992 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (398), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Newport East?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newport East's scale — its 7a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newport East'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 Newport East’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newport East's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,682 acres it covers and 992 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newport East's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newport East's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 24 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 992 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newport East, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newport East's boundary and the 3,682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newport East's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newport Eastlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newport East's 3,682 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 Newport East's 3,682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newport East you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,682 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Newport East-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandNewport East sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides