Providence, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Providence, 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 Providence 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 Providence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Providence — the short answer
Providence, Rhode Island: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 12K 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 Providence's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Providence's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Providence
Each reading below is measured for Providence itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredProvidence runs about 229 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
MeasuredProvidence 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 Providence is in
Providence sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Providence's own centroid rather than borrowed from Providence County.
What Grows in Providence
Every plant below cleared Providence's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Providence?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Providence
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Providence, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Providence
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Providence. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUNKIN DONUTS CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BONANZA BUS LINES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HASBRO INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #3853Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PRI XIV, L.P.Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CIVIC CENTER INTERCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- B T S TIRE & SERVICE STOREBrownfields · 750 ft
- NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 1 EMPIRE PLAZA COMMERCIAL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- A S 220 DARKROOMBrownfields · 850 ft
- NICK'S AUTO BODY & RADIATOR WORKS, INC.Brownfields · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Providence'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 Providence.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Providence
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Providence
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Providence, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 336 sites within ~10 miles of Providence. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Providence
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 Providence average
Your land is one point inside Providence
Everything above resolves to Providence as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 city 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 Providence Average
Providence Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Providence
- ●One soil character for all of Providence
- ●Frost dates read at Providence's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Providence's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Providence
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Providence, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Providence averages can't show:
We read public map data around Providence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Providence average
How we know this about Providence
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Providence’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Providence
When does frost risk typically end in Providence?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Providence typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Providence?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Providence typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Providence?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Providence sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 31, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Providence?
The federal record around Providence runs heavier than most — 4,373 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,167), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Providence?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Providence's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Providence'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 Providence’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Providence's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,780 acres it covers and 4,373 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Providence's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Providence's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 14 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,373 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Providence, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Providence's boundary and the 11,780 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Providence's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Providencelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Providence's 11,780 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 Providence's 11,780 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Providence you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,780 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Providence-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandProvidence sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides