Framingham, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its 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 Framingham, 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 Framingham 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 Framingham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Framingham — the short answer
Framingham, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 16K 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 6b is Framingham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Framingham's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Framingham
Each reading below is measured for Framingham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFramingham runs about 196 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
MeasuredFramingham sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Framingham is in
Framingham sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Framingham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Middlesex County.
What Grows in Framingham
Every plant below cleared Framingham's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Framingham?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Framingham
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Framingham, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Framingham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Framingham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CULTURAL ARTS CENTER/DANFORTH ARTBrownfields · 1900 ft
- THE LEARNING CENTER FOR THE DEAFBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SUNNYSIDE CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Global Montello Group #1479Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FRAMINGHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT ENGINE 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUNOCO # 0402-7363Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ANNIS CORPORATION, THEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NATICK SATURN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CENTRE MOBILBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BRIGHAM-GILL PONTIAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FRAMINGHAM DERMATOLOGYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- A L PRIME ENERGY 120 Fram Worc RdUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Framingham'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 Framingham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Framingham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Framingham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Framingham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Framingham — Superfund (37 sites) and Brownfields (1,407 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Framingham
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 Framingham average
Your land is one point inside Framingham
Everything above resolves to Framingham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 Framingham Average
Framingham Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Framingham
- ●One soil character for all of Framingham
- ●Frost dates read at Framingham's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Framingham's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Framingham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Framingham, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Framingham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Framingham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Framingham average
How we know this about Framingham
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 Framingham’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 Framingham
When does frost risk typically end in Framingham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Framingham typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Framingham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Framingham typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Framingham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Framingham sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Framingham?
The federal record around Framingham runs heavier than most — 2,196 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,407), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Framingham?
From about Sep 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 Oct 24 (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 Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Framingham's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Framingham'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 Framingham’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Framingham's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,028 acres it covers and 2,196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Framingham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Framingham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 24 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Framingham, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Framingham's boundary and the 16,028 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Framingham's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Framinghamlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Framingham's 16,028 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 Framingham's 16,028 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Framingham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,028 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Framingham-wide figureread your own land →
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