Dennis Port, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
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.
Even in Dennis Port, 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 Dennis Port 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 Dennis Port — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dennis Port — the short answer
Dennis Port, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7b is Dennis Port's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dennis Port's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dennis Port
Each reading below is measured for Dennis Port itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDennis Port runs about 239 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
MeasuredDennis Port sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Dennis Port is in
Dennis Port sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dennis Port's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in Dennis Port
Every plant below cleared Dennis Port's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dennis Port?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Dennis Port
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Dennis Port, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dennis Port
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dennis Port. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORLEANS AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- CHASE & MERCHANT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BIG LOTS 4721Brownfields · 1600 ft
- NORTHERN SEALCOATING & PAVINGBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CAPE COD COLLABORATIVEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ORLEANS AUTO SUPPLY DENNIS PORTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DON AND DAVES AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SPEEDWAY #2436Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- N/F MURRAY'S FUEL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PAIN RELIEF CENTER OF CAPE CODBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FIRESTONE BRIDGE STOREBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GETTY STATION #30614Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dennis Port'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 Dennis Port.
Total Sites
839
within ~10 miles of Dennis Port
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dennis Port
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dennis Port
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dennis Port, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 407 sites within ~10 miles of Dennis Port. 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 Dennis Port
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 Dennis Port average
Your land is one point inside Dennis Port
Everything above resolves to Dennis Port as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dennis Port Average
Dennis Port Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dennis Port
- ●One soil character for all of Dennis Port
- ●Frost dates read at Dennis Port's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dennis Port's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dennis Port
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dennis Port, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dennis Port averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dennis Port — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dennis Port average
How we know this about Dennis Port
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 Dennis Port’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 Dennis Port
When does frost risk typically end in Dennis Port?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dennis Port typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Dennis Port?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dennis Port typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dennis Port?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dennis Port sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 9, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dennis Port?
The federal record around Dennis Port is a meaningful one — 839 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (407), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dennis Port?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dennis Port's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dennis Port'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 Dennis Port’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dennis Port's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,944 acres it covers and 839 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dennis Port's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dennis Port's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 23 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 839 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dennis Port, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dennis Port's boundary and the 1,944 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dennis Port's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dennis Portlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dennis Port's 1,944 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barnstable County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barnstable 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 Barnstable County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dennis Port's 1,944 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dennis Port you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,944 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Dennis Port-wide figureread your own land →