Beverly, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Beverly, 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 Beverly 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 Beverly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beverly — the short answer
Beverly, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Beverly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beverly's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beverly
Each reading below is measured for Beverly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeverly runs about 229 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
MeasuredBeverly 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 Beverly is in
Beverly sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beverly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Beverly
Every plant below cleared Beverly's own zone 6b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beverly?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Beverly
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Beverly, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beverly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beverly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IXCELA INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MICHAEL MCMANUS FINE HOME PAINTING LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WILLIAM J CREED & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WARING SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- COVE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BRANCH LANE MERCURY RELEASESuperfund · 1.0 mi
- GARAGE REMEDIATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TURTLE WOOD CORPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MAGIC TOUCH CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NDRN, DBA FIVE STARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HALE STREET AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- KELLEHER FUEL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beverly'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 Beverly.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beverly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beverly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beverly, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beverly — Brownfields (1,078 sites) and Superfund (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Beverly
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 Beverly average
Your land is one point inside Beverly
Everything above resolves to Beverly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Beverly Average
Beverly Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Beverly
- ●One soil character for all of Beverly
- ●Frost dates read at Beverly's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beverly's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beverly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beverly, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beverly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beverly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beverly average
How we know this about Beverly
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 Beverly’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 Beverly
When does frost risk typically end in Beverly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beverly typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Beverly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beverly 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 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beverly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beverly sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 2, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beverly?
The federal record around Beverly runs heavier than most — 1,714 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,078), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Beverly?
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 Beverly's scale — its 6b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beverly'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 Beverly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beverly's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,658 acres it covers and 1,714 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beverly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beverly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 16 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,714 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beverly, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beverly's boundary and the 9,658 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beverly's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Beverlylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beverly's 9,658 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 Beverly's 9,658 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beverly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,658 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Beverly-wide figureread your own land →
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