Warwick, 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.
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 Warwick, 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 Warwick 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 Warwick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Warwick — the short answer
Warwick, Rhode Island: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 22K 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 Warwick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warwick's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warwick
Each reading below is measured for Warwick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarwick runs about 232 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
MeasuredWarwick 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 Warwick is in
Warwick sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Warwick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Warwick
Every plant below cleared Warwick's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Warwick?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Warwick
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Warwick, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Warwick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warwick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST BAY MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HERB'S TOWINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #17325Brownfields · 1200 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #5137Brownfields · 1200 ft
- SUNOCO SERVICE STA/HERBS TOWING & SERVICE CENTER INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JANCO CENTRAL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NECG #68003Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- B & R AUTO & TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- VERIZON NEW ENGLAND, INC. (RI 325306)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- R & R MACHINE COBrownfields · 1800 ft
- NEW ENGLAND AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SALK'S HARDWARE & MARINE INC.Brownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warwick'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 Warwick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warwick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warwick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warwick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Warwick — Toxics Release Inventory (254 sites) and Superfund (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Warwick
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 Warwick average
Your land is one point inside Warwick
Everything above resolves to Warwick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Warwick Average
Warwick Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Warwick
- ●One soil character for all of Warwick
- ●Frost dates read at Warwick's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warwick's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warwick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warwick, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warwick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warwick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warwick average
How we know this about Warwick
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 Warwick’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 Warwick
When does frost risk typically end in Warwick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warwick typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Warwick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warwick typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warwick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warwick sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 2, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warwick?
The federal record around Warwick is a meaningful one — 3,742 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,704), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Warwick?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Warwick's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warwick'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 Warwick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Warwick's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,401 acres it covers and 3,742 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warwick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warwick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 16 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,742 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warwick, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warwick's boundary and the 22,401 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Warwick's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Warwicklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Warwick's 22,401 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kent 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 Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warwick's 22,401 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warwick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,401 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 Warwick-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandWarwick sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides