Barnstable County, in Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
You’re in Cape Cod & the Islands
A sandy, sea-wrapped peninsula and islands with the state's warmest, longest season — and its most maritime one. Acidic soils long worked for cranberries and beach plums; wind and salt are the constant neighbors of every garden.
Barnstable County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Barnstable County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Barnstable County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Barnstable County — the short answer
Barnstable County, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 252K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 252K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Barnstable County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnstable County's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Barnstable County
Across a year, Barnstable County accumulates about 2,488 growing degree days above 50°F, about 38 fewer than the middle Massachusetts county — ahead of 4 of Massachusetts’s 14 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Barnstable County
Across Barnstable County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Carver, Plymouth, and Enfield are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a coarse sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.0–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Barnstable County
The USDA soil survey maps 53% of Barnstable County as excessively drained — but another 26% drains differently: 12% well drained, 8% very poorly drained.
Carver is the most extensive named soil at 44% of mapped acres, then Plymouth (12%) and Enfield (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Barnstable County
Each reading below is measured for Barnstable County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Barnstable County are excessively drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Barnstable County runs about pH 4.0–5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBarnstable County runs about 226 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
MeasuredBarnstable County 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 Barnstable County is in
Barnstable County sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Barnstable County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Barnstable County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 226-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile.
Is it too late to plant in Barnstable County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Barnstable County
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Barnstable County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle17 documented records
- monarch butterfly213 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Barnstable County
USGS estimates 26 lb of 2,4-d on Barnstable County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (23 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (23 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Barnstable County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Barnstable County — 4,626 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 15 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Barnstable County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Barnstable County
Closest first, across Barnstable County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DENNIS POLICE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- TOWN OF DENNIS POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GALATEA INC D/B/A MAYFAIR BOAT YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MA-DGW 66Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MA-DGW 112Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MA-DGW 3Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MA-DGW 67Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- MA-DGW 56Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- MA-DGW 79Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- MA-DGW 57Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MA-DGW 58Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MA-DGW 232Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnstable County'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 Barnstable County.
Sources Checked
across Barnstable County
Severity Distribution
across Barnstable County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnstable County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 3,276 sites across Barnstable County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Barnstable County
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 Barnstable County average
Your land is one point inside Barnstable County
Everything above resolves to Barnstable County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 252K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Barnstable County Average
Barnstable County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Barnstable County
- ●One soil character for all of Barnstable County
- ●Frost dates read at Barnstable County's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnstable County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Barnstable County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnstable County, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnstable County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnstable County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnstable County average
How we know this about Barnstable County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Barnstable County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Barnstable County
When does frost risk typically end in Barnstable County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnstable County typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Barnstable County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnstable County sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Nov 1, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnstable County?
The federal record around Barnstable County is a meaningful one — 4,626 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (3,276), the nearest Brownfields 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.
Everything above is measured at Barnstable County's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnstable County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Massachusetts's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Barnstable County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Barnstable County's own scale — its own ~226-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 4,626 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnstable County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnstable County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Barnstable CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 4,626 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Barnstable County's boundary and the 252,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Barnstable County sitting wholly inside the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Barnstable County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Barnstable County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Massachusetts grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Massachusetts
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Barnstable County — the ~226 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnstable County's 252,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 4,626 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Barnstable Countyread your own land →