Attleboro, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Southeastern Massachusetts
The low coastal plain of the South Coast — mild, moist, and worked for market vegetables and small orchards for generations. One of the gentler corners of the Massachusetts growing map.
Even in Attleboro, 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 Attleboro 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 Attleboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Attleboro — the short answer
Attleboro, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 17K 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 Attleboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Attleboro's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Attleboro
Each reading below is measured for Attleboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAttleboro runs about 217 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
MeasuredAttleboro 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 Attleboro is in
Attleboro sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Attleboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bristol County.
What Grows in Attleboro
Every plant below cleared Attleboro's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Attleboro?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Attleboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Attleboro, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Attleboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Attleboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Byblos OneUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HANKS CLEANSING SHOPBrownfields · 550 ft
- SWEET METAL FINISHINGBrownfields · 1000 ft
- USAR CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BASSLER K F CO INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GUYOT BROTHERS CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- GUYOT BROTHERS CO INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- AB GROUP THEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DPW Facility-101 LambUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 1SG LAWRENCE O PONCIN ARC/OMSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- 123 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- H&R AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Attleboro'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 Attleboro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Attleboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Attleboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Attleboro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Attleboro — Toxics Release Inventory (253 sites) and Superfund (46 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Attleboro
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 Attleboro average
Your land is one point inside Attleboro
Everything above resolves to Attleboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Attleboro Average
Attleboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Attleboro
- ●One soil character for all of Attleboro
- ●Frost dates read at Attleboro's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Attleboro's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Attleboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Attleboro, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Attleboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Attleboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Attleboro average
How we know this about Attleboro
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 Attleboro’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 Attleboro
When does frost risk typically end in Attleboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Attleboro typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Attleboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Attleboro typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Attleboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Attleboro sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 22, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Attleboro?
The federal record around Attleboro runs heavier than most — 2,878 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,314), 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 Attleboro?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Attleboro's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Attleboro'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 Attleboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Attleboro's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,139 acres it covers and 2,878 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Attleboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Attleboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 5 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,878 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Attleboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Attleboro's boundary and the 17,139 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Attleboro's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Attleborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Attleboro's 17,139 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bristol County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bristol 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 Bristol County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Attleboro's 17,139 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Attleboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,139 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 Attleboro-wide figureread your own land →