Blandford, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Pioneer Valley
The Connecticut River's broad valley floor — the richest farm ground in the state, deep alluvial soils and a warmer pocket than the hills on either side. Long a market-garden and tobacco valley; a forgiving place to grow.
Even in Blandford, 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 Blandford 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 Blandford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blandford — the short answer
Blandford, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 736 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 736 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 6a is Blandford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blandford's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blandford
Each reading below is measured for Blandford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlandford runs about 174 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
MeasuredBlandford sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Blandford is in
Blandford sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Blandford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hampden County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Blandford
Every plant below cleared Blandford's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blandford?
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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Blandford
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Blandford, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blandford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blandford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLANDFORD STORE, THEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RICHARD HARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TOWN OF BLANDFORD HIGHWAY GARAGEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- GULF OIL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP #3902Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GULF OIL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP #3903Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BLANDFORD SKI AREA LLCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SPRINGFIELD SKI CLUB INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GULF OIL REST STOP STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- REST STOP GAS STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BLANDFORD TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- BLANDFORD TOWN OFBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- TOWN OF BLANDFORD HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blandford'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 Blandford.
Total Sites
281
within ~10 miles of Blandford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blandford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blandford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blandford, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Blandford. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Blandford
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 Blandford average
Your land is one point inside Blandford
Everything above resolves to Blandford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 736 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 Blandford Average
Blandford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Blandford
- ●One soil character for all of Blandford
- ●Frost dates read at Blandford's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blandford's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blandford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blandford, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blandford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blandford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blandford average
How we know this about Blandford
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 Blandford’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 Blandford
When does frost risk typically end in Blandford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blandford 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 Blandford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blandford typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blandford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blandford sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 6, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blandford?
The federal record around Blandford is a meaningful one — 281 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Blandford?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blandford's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blandford'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 Blandford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blandford's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 736 acres it covers and 281 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blandford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blandford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 20 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 281 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blandford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blandford's boundary and the 736 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Blandford sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blandfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blandford's 736 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampden 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 Hampden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blandford's 736 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blandford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 736 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Blandford-wide figureread your own land →
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