Maine, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Maine, 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 Maine 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 Maine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Maine — the short answer
Maine, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 28K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 28K 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 4b is Maine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maine's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maine
Each reading below is measured for Maine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaine runs about 165 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMaine sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Maine is in
Maine sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Maine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marathon County.
What Grows in Maine
Every plant below cleared Maine's own zone 4b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maine?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Maine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ZASTROW CONST CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHURNY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RONDELE FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Anderson Bros & Johnson CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JANISCH TRUCKING & EXCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VAN DER GEEST DAIRY CATTLE INCCAFO · 1.3 mi
- DAIRYLAND STATE ACADEMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- JAMES STRANDBERGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- RED GRANITE TAVERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ROBERT LASZEWSKIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WAUSAU PAPER CORP BROKAW MILLToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- NORTHSIDE CITGOBrownfields · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maine'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 Maine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maine, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 551 sites within ~10 miles of Maine. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Maine
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 Maine average
Your land is one point inside Maine
Everything above resolves to Maine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 28K 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 Maine Average
Maine Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Maine
- ●One soil character for all of Maine
- ●Frost dates read at Maine's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maine's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maine, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maine average
How we know this about Maine
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 Maine’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 Maine
When does frost risk typically end in Maine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maine typically lands around Apr 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 May 21.
When is the first frost in Maine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maine typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maine sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 28, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maine?
The federal record around Maine is a meaningful one — 839 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (551), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Maine?
From about Sep 12 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 Oct 12 (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 Oct 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Maine's scale — its 4b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maine'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 Maine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maine's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 27,567 acres it covers and 839 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 12 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 839 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maine's boundary and the 27,567 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maine's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Maine's 27,567 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marathon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marathon County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Marathon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maine's 27,567 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 27,567 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Maine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinMaine sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides