Norfolk County, in Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
You’re in Greater Boston
The state's dense urban core, where growing means raised beds, community plots, and back-lot kitchen gardens more than open field. A long, mild season for the region — but city soil is the thing to know before you dig.
Norfolk County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Norfolk 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 Norfolk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Norfolk County — the short answer
Norfolk County, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 254K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 254K 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 6b is Norfolk County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norfolk County's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Norfolk County
Across a year, Norfolk County accumulates about 2,673 growing degree days above 50°F, about 147 more than the middle Massachusetts county — ahead of 10 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 Norfolk County
Across Norfolk County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Canton, Merrimac, and Woodbridge are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Norfolk County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Norfolk County as well drained — but another 42% drains differently: 11% very poorly drained, 10% somewhat excessively drained.
Canton is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Merrimac (11%) and Woodbridge (8%).
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 Norfolk County
Each reading below is measured for Norfolk 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 Norfolk County are well 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 Norfolk County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 20% of Norfolk County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredNorfolk County runs about 199 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
The kind of country Norfolk County is in
Norfolk County sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Norfolk County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Norfolk County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 199-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 Norfolk 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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Norfolk County
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Norfolk County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle7 documented records
- monarch butterfly112 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Norfolk County
USGS estimates 56 lb of Metolachlor-s on Norfolk County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (56 lb) and 2,4-d (50 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 Norfolk County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Norfolk County — 3,591 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 36 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Norfolk 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 Norfolk County
Closest first, across Norfolk County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLIDDEN COMPANYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- EP COTTER OIL CO INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- REVOLUTION COMPOSITESBrownfields · 2100 ft
- PRATT & WHITNEY ENGINE SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- AMETEK PROGRAMMABLE POWER DBA UNITED ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 2300 ft
- GZA GEOENVIRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- PLEASANT STREET PROPERTIESSuperfund · 2500 ft
- IMGEN DIAGNOSTICS, INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- HOME MARKET FOODS MEAT PROCESSING FACILITYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- P & A LOGISTICS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SB POWERTOOL COBrownfields · 2600 ft
- REGAL PRESSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norfolk 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 Norfolk County.
Sources Checked
across Norfolk County
Severity Distribution
across Norfolk County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norfolk County, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,297 sites across Norfolk County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Norfolk 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 Norfolk County average
Your land is one point inside Norfolk County
Everything above resolves to Norfolk County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 254K 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 Norfolk County Average
Norfolk County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Norfolk County
- ●One soil character for all of Norfolk County
- ●Frost dates read at Norfolk County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norfolk County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Norfolk County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norfolk County, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norfolk County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norfolk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norfolk County average
How we know this about Norfolk 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 Norfolk County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Norfolk County
When does frost risk typically end in Norfolk County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norfolk County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Norfolk County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norfolk County sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 12, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norfolk County?
The federal record around Norfolk County runs heavier than most — 3,591 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,297), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Norfolk County's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norfolk 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 Norfolk County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Norfolk County's own scale — its own ~199-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 3,591 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norfolk County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Norfolk County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Norfolk CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 3,591 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Norfolk County's boundary and the 253,506 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Norfolk County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Norfolk County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Norfolk 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 Norfolk County — the ~199 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 Norfolk County's 253,506 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 3,591 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 Norfolk Countyread your own land →