Boxford, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific 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 Boxford, 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 Boxford 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 Boxford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boxford — the short answer
Boxford, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Boxford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boxford's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boxford
Each reading below is measured for Boxford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBoxford runs about 211 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
MeasuredBoxford 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 Boxford is in
Boxford sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Boxford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Boxford
Every plant below cleared Boxford's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boxford?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Boxford
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Boxford, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Boxford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boxford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOXFORD COMMUNITY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ARTHUR ROLLINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MA-BJW 295 BOXFORD, MANitrate · 0.9 mi
- MA-BJW 52Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- MA-BJW 114Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- FAR CORNER FARM GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MA-BJW 175Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- TOPSFIELD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TOPSFIELD SHELLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MA-BJW 188Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- MA-BJW 140Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- DISNEY RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boxford'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 Boxford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boxford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boxford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boxford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Boxford — Superfund (32 sites) and Brownfields (1,232 sites). 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Boxford
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 Boxford average
Your land is one point inside Boxford
Everything above resolves to Boxford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Boxford Average
Boxford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Boxford
- ●One soil character for all of Boxford
- ●Frost dates read at Boxford's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boxford's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boxford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boxford, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boxford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boxford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boxford average
How we know this about Boxford
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 Boxford’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 Boxford
When does frost risk typically end in Boxford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boxford typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Boxford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boxford typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boxford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boxford sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boxford?
The federal record around Boxford runs heavier than most — 2,019 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,232), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Boxford?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boxford's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boxford'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 Boxford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Boxford's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,433 acres it covers and 2,019 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boxford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boxford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,019 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boxford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boxford's boundary and the 3,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boxford's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Boxfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boxford's 3,433 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 Boxford's 3,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boxford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Boxford-wide figureread your own land →
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