Hampshire County, in 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
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.
Hampshire County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hampshire 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 Hampshire County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hampshire County — the short answer
Hampshire County, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 337K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 337K 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 6a is Hampshire County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hampshire County's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hampshire County
Across a year, Hampshire County accumulates about 2,508 growing degree days above 50°F, about 18 fewer than the middle Massachusetts county — ahead of 6 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 Hampshire County
Across Hampshire County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Hinckley, Tunbridge, and Lyman are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
14%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hampshire County
The USDA soil survey maps 47% of Hampshire County as well drained — but another 49% drains differently: 19% moderately well drained, 10% poorly drained.
Hinckley is the most extensive named soil at 6% of mapped acres, then Tunbridge (6%) and Lyman (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 Hampshire County
Each reading below is measured for Hampshire 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 Hampshire County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Hampshire County runs about pH 4.8–5.5, 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
MeasuredHampshire County runs about 189 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
MeasuredHampshire County 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 Hampshire County is in
Hampshire County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Highlands (54%) and Northeastern Coastal Zone (46%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Hampshire County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hampshire County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 189-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 Hampshire County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hampshire County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hampshire County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle11 documented records
- monarch butterfly601 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hampshire County
USGS estimates 4,336 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Hampshire County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (3,576 lb) and Glyphosate (1,755 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 Hampshire County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hampshire County — 989 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Hampshire County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hampshire County
Closest first, across Hampshire County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRED HOOTEN RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- DONNELLY RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF NEW ENGLANDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FLORENCE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FLORENCE TOWING & AUTO REPAIR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- COOLEY DICKINSON MEDICAL GROUP PULMONARY AND ALLERGYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- LUTHER BELDEN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 129 2009Brownfields · 2200 ft
- COOLEY DICKINSON MEDICAL GROUP PLASTIC SURGERYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MAGNAT MACHINETECH INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CRITICAL SYSTEM INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- VALLEY MEDICAL GROUP PC NORTHAMPTON HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hampshire 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 Hampshire County.
Total Sites
989
across Hampshire County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Hampshire County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hampshire County, two things run higher than the national average across Hampshire County — PFAS (9 sites) and Brownfields (521 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Hampshire 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 Hampshire County average
Your land is one point inside Hampshire County
Everything above resolves to Hampshire County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 337K 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 Hampshire County Average
Hampshire County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hampshire County
- ●One soil character for all of Hampshire County
- ●Frost dates read at Hampshire County's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hampshire County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hampshire County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hampshire County, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hampshire County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hampshire County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hampshire County average
How we know this about Hampshire 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 Hampshire County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hampshire County
When does frost risk typically end in Hampshire County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hampshire County typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Hampshire County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hampshire County sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 9, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hampshire County?
The federal record around Hampshire County runs heavier than most — 989 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (521), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Hampshire County's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hampshire 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 Hampshire County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hampshire County's own scale — its own ~189-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 989 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hampshire County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hampshire County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hampshire CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 989 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hampshire County's boundary and the 337,430 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hampshire County spans, Northeastern Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hampshire County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hampshire 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 Hampshire County — the ~189 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 Hampshire County's 337,430 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 989 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 Hampshire Countyread your own land →