Franklin, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
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 Franklin, 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 Franklin 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 Franklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Franklin — the short answer
Franklin, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 17K 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 17K 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 Franklin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Franklin's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Franklin
Each reading below is measured for Franklin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFranklin runs about 198 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
MeasuredFranklin 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 Franklin is in
Franklin sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Franklin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Norfolk County.
What Grows in Franklin
Every plant below cleared Franklin's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Franklin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 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 Franklin
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Franklin, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Franklin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Franklin Town. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRANKLIN WATER DEPARTMENT, MAPFAS · 25 ft
- CHELSEA DRUM COMPANYBrownfields · 700 ft
- TRAFFIC MARKINGS INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- EIKOS INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- VENDETTI MOTORS BUICK PONTIAC GMCBrownfields · 850 ft
- AIRLOC CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- POLYURETHANE MOLDING IND INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- TOWN OF FRANKLIN DPW GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AUTOZONE NORTHEAST INC DBA AUBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CLARK CUTLER MCDERMOTTToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- NOURIA 04225Brownfields · 1400 ft
- WEST FRANKLIN SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Franklin'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 Franklin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Franklin Town
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Franklin Town
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Franklin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Franklin Town — PFAS (18 sites) and Brownfields (1,063 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Franklin
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 Franklin average
Your land is one point inside Franklin
Everything above resolves to Franklin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Franklin Average
Franklin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Franklin
- ●One soil character for all of Franklin
- ●Frost dates read at Franklin's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Franklin's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Franklin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Franklin, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Franklin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Franklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Franklin average
How we know this about Franklin
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 Franklin’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 Franklin
When does frost risk typically end in Franklin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Franklin 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 Franklin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Franklin typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Franklin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Franklin sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Franklin?
The federal record around Franklin runs heavier than most — 1,883 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,063), 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 Franklin?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Franklin's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Franklin'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 Franklin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Franklin's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,049 acres it covers and 1,883 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Franklin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Franklin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,883 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Franklin, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Franklin's boundary and the 17,049 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Franklin's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Franklinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Franklin's 17,049 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Norfolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Norfolk 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 Norfolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Franklin's 17,049 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Franklin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,049 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 Franklin-wide figureread your own land →
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