Hanson, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 South Shore
The coastal band south of Boston into old cranberry country — sandy, acidic ground and a maritime season that runs a touch longer than the interior. Bog and shoreline shape what has always grown well down here.
Even in Hanson, 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 Hanson 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 Hanson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hanson — the short answer
Hanson, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- 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)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Hanson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hanson's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hanson
Each reading below is measured for Hanson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHanson runs about 205 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
MeasuredHanson 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 Hanson is in
Hanson sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hanson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plymouth County.
What Grows in Hanson
Every plant below cleared Hanson's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hanson?
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 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 Nov 2 — 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 Hanson
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Hanson, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hanson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hanson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER MAQUAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- FERRY'S AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FERRYS AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- AUTOWORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PEMBROKE DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHAWS 1409Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 1249Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- DEVLINS AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- DEDUCTIBLE AUTO BODY & SALESBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- RNR MARINE LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- DEVLIN'S AUTOMOBILE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MACKENZIE MACHINE AND DESIGN INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hanson'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 Hanson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hanson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hanson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hanson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hanson — PFAS (16 sites) and Brownfields (906 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hanson
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 Hanson average
Your land is one point inside Hanson
Everything above resolves to Hanson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Hanson Average
Hanson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hanson
- ●One soil character for all of Hanson
- ●Frost dates read at Hanson's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hanson's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hanson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hanson, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hanson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hanson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hanson average
How we know this about Hanson
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 Hanson’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 Hanson
When does frost risk typically end in Hanson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hanson 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 Hanson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hanson typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hanson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hanson sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 19, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hanson?
The federal record around Hanson runs heavier than most — 1,556 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (906), 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 Hanson?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hanson's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hanson'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 Hanson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hanson's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,174 acres it covers and 1,556 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hanson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hanson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 2 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,556 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hanson, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hanson's boundary and the 1,174 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hanson's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hansonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hanson's 1,174 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plymouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plymouth 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 Plymouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hanson's 1,174 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hanson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,174 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 Hanson-wide figureread your own land →
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