Hatfield, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Pioneer Valley
The Connecticut River's broad valley floor — the richest farm ground in the state, deep alluvial soils and a warmer pocket than the hills on either side. Long a market-garden and tobacco valley; a forgiving place to grow.
Even in Hatfield, 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 Hatfield 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 Hatfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hatfield — the short answer
Hatfield, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- 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 6a is Hatfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hatfield's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hatfield
Each reading below is measured for Hatfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHatfield runs about 180 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
MeasuredHatfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Hatfield is in
Hatfield sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hatfield's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hampshire County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hatfield
Every plant below cleared Hatfield's own zone 6a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hatfield?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Hatfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hatfield, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hatfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hatfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J & L GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DB MARKETING #821Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SZAWLOWSKI POTATO FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COMPASS RECOVERY LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GENERAL CIGAR CO / CULBRO TOBACCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HATFIELD TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- HATFIELD HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- HATFIELD HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BROCKWAY SMITH COBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- BROCKWAY-SMITH COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 9236 HATFIELD SOUTHBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- TREMBLAY BARRELSuperfund · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hatfield'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 Hatfield.
Total Sites
856
within ~10 miles of Hatfield
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hatfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hatfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hatfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hatfield — Brownfields (462 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hatfield
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 Hatfield average
Your land is one point inside Hatfield
Everything above resolves to Hatfield 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 Hatfield Average
Hatfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hatfield
- ●One soil character for all of Hatfield
- ●Frost dates read at Hatfield's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hatfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hatfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hatfield, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hatfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hatfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hatfield average
How we know this about Hatfield
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 Hatfield’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 Hatfield
When does frost risk typically end in Hatfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hatfield typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Hatfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hatfield typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hatfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hatfield sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 7, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hatfield?
The federal record around Hatfield runs heavier than most — 856 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (462), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hatfield?
From about Sep 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 Oct 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hatfield's scale — its 6a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hatfield'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 Hatfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hatfield's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,568 acres it covers and 856 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hatfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hatfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 21 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 856 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hatfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hatfield's boundary and the 1,568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hatfield sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hatfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hatfield's 1,568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampshire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampshire 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 Hampshire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hatfield's 1,568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hatfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,568 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hatfield-wide figureread your own land →
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