Boston, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Boston, 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 Boston 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 Boston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boston — the short answer
Boston, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 31K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 31K 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 7a is Boston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boston's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boston
Each reading below is measured for Boston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBoston runs about 241 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
MeasuredBoston sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Boston is in
Boston sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Boston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Boston
Every plant below cleared Boston's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boston?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Boston
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Boston, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Boston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASTLE ISLANDBrownfields · 450 ft
- WHITE FUEL DIV OF TEXACO USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PAUL W CONLEY TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JOHN T CLARK AND SONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MAGNA ELECTRONICSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- COASTAL OIL OF NEW ENGLANDToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- COASTAL OIL OF NEW ENGLANDBrownfields · 2500 ft
- JOHNS AUTO PLACEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MOTIONALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- JCDECAUX NABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH BOSTON NAVAL ANNEXSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH BOSTON YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boston'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 Boston.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boston, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 4,775 sites within ~10 miles of Boston. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Boston
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 Boston average
Your land is one point inside Boston
Everything above resolves to Boston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 31K 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 Boston Average
Boston Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Boston
- ●One soil character for all of Boston
- ●Frost dates read at Boston's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boston's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boston, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boston average
How we know this about Boston
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 Boston’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 Boston
When does frost risk typically end in Boston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boston typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Boston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boston typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boston sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 10, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boston?
The federal record around Boston runs heavier than most — 6,766 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,775), the nearest Brownfields 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 Boston?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boston's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boston'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 Boston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Boston's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 30,938 acres it covers and 6,766 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 24 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,766 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boston, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boston's boundary and the 30,938 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boston's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bostonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boston's 30,938 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suffolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suffolk 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 Suffolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boston's 30,938 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 30,938 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Boston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Massachusetts
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