Baldwinville, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Central Massachusetts
The inland heart of the state — rolling upland, cooler nights, and a shorter season than the coast. Stony glacial soils that reward the gardener who feeds and drains them.
Even in Baldwinville, 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 Baldwinville 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 Baldwinville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baldwinville — the short answer
Baldwinville, Massachusetts: USDA zone 5b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- 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 5b is Baldwinville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baldwinville's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baldwinville
Each reading below is measured for Baldwinville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaldwinville runs about 167 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
MeasuredBaldwinville sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Baldwinville is in
Baldwinville sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Baldwinville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Worcester County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Baldwinville
Every plant below cleared Baldwinville's own zone 5b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baldwinville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Baldwinville
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Baldwinville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Baldwinville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baldwinville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD LANDFILL AREA/BIRCH HILL DAMSuperfund · 1400 ft
- TOWN OF TEMPLETON 10 PLEASANT STBrownfields · 1500 ft
- TEMPLETON DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSSuperfund · 1700 ft
- TEMPLETON WW TREATMENT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VALLIERES AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #2133Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MA-TNW 46Nitrate · 1900 ft
- AMERICAN TISSUE MILLS OF MASSACHUSETTSToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- AMERICAN TISSUE MILLS OF MA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FORMER TEMPLE - STUART FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- AMERICAN TISSUE MILLS OF MASSBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baldwinville'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 Baldwinville.
Total Sites
487
within ~10 miles of Baldwinville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baldwinville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baldwinville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baldwinville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Baldwinville — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Baldwinville
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 Baldwinville average
Your land is one point inside Baldwinville
Everything above resolves to Baldwinville 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 Baldwinville Average
Baldwinville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Baldwinville
- ●One soil character for all of Baldwinville
- ●Frost dates read at Baldwinville's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baldwinville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baldwinville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baldwinville, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baldwinville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baldwinville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baldwinville average
How we know this about Baldwinville
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 Baldwinville’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 Baldwinville
When does frost risk typically end in Baldwinville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwinville typically lands around Apr 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 May 20.
When is the first frost in Baldwinville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwinville typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baldwinville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baldwinville sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 29, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baldwinville?
The federal record around Baldwinville is a meaningful one — 487 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (267), the nearest Superfund record about 0.3 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 Baldwinville?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baldwinville's scale — its 5b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baldwinville'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 Baldwinville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Baldwinville's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,642 acres it covers and 487 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baldwinville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baldwinville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 13 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 487 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baldwinville, the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baldwinville's boundary and the 1,642 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Baldwinville sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Baldwinvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baldwinville's 1,642 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worcester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worcester 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 Worcester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baldwinville's 1,642 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baldwinville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,642 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.3 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 Baldwinville-wide figureread your own land →
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