Tiverton, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tiverton, 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 Tiverton 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 Tiverton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tiverton — the short answer
Tiverton, Rhode Island: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- 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
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Tiverton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tiverton's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tiverton
Each reading below is measured for Tiverton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTiverton runs about 241 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
MeasuredTiverton 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 Tiverton is in
Tiverton sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tiverton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newport County.
What Grows in Tiverton
Every plant below cleared Tiverton's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tiverton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Tiverton
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Tiverton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tiverton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tiverton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARY ARRUDA PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- EXECUTIVE SMOKE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- R&A AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RITE AID #10235Brownfields · 1500 ft
- TIVERTON AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- NORTHEAST PETROLEUM CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- P.D. HUMPHREY COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HUMPHREY'S BUILDING SUPPLYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- SAKONNET AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #15751Brownfields · 2600 ft
- NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tiverton'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 Tiverton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tiverton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tiverton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tiverton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tiverton — Superfund (27 sites) and PFAS (10 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Tiverton
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 Tiverton average
Your land is one point inside Tiverton
Everything above resolves to Tiverton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Tiverton Average
Tiverton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tiverton
- ●One soil character for all of Tiverton
- ●Frost dates read at Tiverton's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tiverton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tiverton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tiverton, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tiverton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tiverton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tiverton average
How we know this about Tiverton
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 Tiverton’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 Tiverton
When does frost risk typically end in Tiverton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tiverton typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Tiverton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tiverton 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 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tiverton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tiverton sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 7, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tiverton?
The federal record around Tiverton is a meaningful one — 1,222 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (581), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tiverton?
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 Tiverton's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tiverton'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 Tiverton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tiverton's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,675 acres it covers and 1,222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tiverton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tiverton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 21 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tiverton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tiverton's boundary and the 2,675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tiverton's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tivertonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tiverton's 2,675 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 Tiverton's 2,675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tiverton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tiverton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandTiverton sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides