Andover, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in North Shore
The settled coast north of Boston — salt air, tidy town lots, and sea-tempered winters that hold the cold off a little longer than the hills inland. Wind and salt spray are the near-shore gardener's companions here.
Even in Andover, 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 Andover 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 Andover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Andover — the short answer
Andover, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Andover's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Andover's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Andover
Each reading below is measured for Andover itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAndover runs about 210 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
MeasuredAndover sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Andover is in
Andover sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Andover's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Andover
Every plant below cleared Andover's own zone 6b and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Andover?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Andover
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Andover, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Andover
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Andover. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10 MAIN STREET LLCBrownfields · 550 ft
- ANDOVER MEMORIAL HALL LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Global Montello Group #1430Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MOBIL 2430Brownfields · 650 ft
- PMG #8644Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ANDOVER GULFBrownfields · 700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 1174Brownfields · 700 ft
- JJ&C PARTNERSHIPBrownfields · 700 ft
- ANDOVER TOWN OFBrownfields · 750 ft
- ANDOVER POLICE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ANDOVER FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- STORAGE BUILDING #108Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Andover'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 Andover.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Andover
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Andover
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Andover, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Andover — Superfund (49 sites) and Brownfields (1,645 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Andover
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 Andover average
Your land is one point inside Andover
Everything above resolves to Andover as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Andover Average
Andover Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Andover
- ●One soil character for all of Andover
- ●Frost dates read at Andover's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Andover's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Andover
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Andover, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Andover averages can't show:
We read public map data around Andover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Andover average
How we know this about Andover
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 Andover’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 Andover
When does frost risk typically end in Andover?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Andover typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Andover?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Andover typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Andover?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Andover sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 17, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Andover?
The federal record around Andover runs heavier than most — 2,794 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,645), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Andover?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Andover's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Andover'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 Andover’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Andover's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,360 acres it covers and 2,794 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Andover's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Andover's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 31 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,794 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Andover, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Andover's boundary and the 2,360 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Andover's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Andoverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Andover's 2,360 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex County
- The growing challenges every Massachusetts grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Massachusetts
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Andover's 2,360 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Andover you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,360 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Andover-wide figureread your own land →
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