Everett, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
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.
Even in Everett, 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 Everett 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 Everett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Everett — the short answer
Everett, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 7a is Everett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Everett's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Everett
Each reading below is measured for Everett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEverett runs about 236 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
MeasuredEverett 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 Everett is in
Everett sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Everett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Middlesex County.
What Grows in Everett
Every plant below cleared Everett's own zone 7a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Everett?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Everett
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Everett, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Everett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Everett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EVERETT WATER DEPT. (MWRA)PFAS · 25 ft
- WALGREENS 17728Brownfields · 500 ft
- BOSTON FREIGHTLINER INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- EVERETT SQUARE PLAZABrownfields · 550 ft
- CHA EVERETT CARE CENTERBrownfields · 650 ft
- GLENDALE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CITY OF EVERETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- EVERETT DELUXE CLEANERSBrownfields · 800 ft
- ONE HUNDRED TEN SCHOOL STREETBrownfields · 800 ft
- EUROPEAN MOTORS OF EVERETTBrownfields · 900 ft
- SALS CLEANERSBrownfields · 950 ft
- DON'S CITY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Everett'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 Everett.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Everett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Everett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Everett, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 5,258 sites within ~10 miles of Everett. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Everett
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 Everett average
Your land is one point inside Everett
Everything above resolves to Everett 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 city 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 Everett Average
Everett Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Everett
- ●One soil character for all of Everett
- ●Frost dates read at Everett's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Everett's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Everett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Everett, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Everett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Everett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Everett average
How we know this about Everett
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Everett’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Everett
When does frost risk typically end in Everett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Everett 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 Everett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Everett typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Everett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Everett sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 6, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Everett?
The federal record around Everett runs heavier than most — 7,471 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,258), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Everett?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Everett's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Everett'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 Everett’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Everett's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,187 acres it covers and 7,471 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Everett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Everett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 20 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,471 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Everett, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Everett's boundary and the 2,187 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Everett's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Everettlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Everett's 2,187 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Middlesex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Middlesex 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 Middlesex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Everett's 2,187 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Everett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,187 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Everett-wide figureread your own land →
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