Hopedale, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Central Massachusetts
The inland heart of the state — rolling upland, cooler nights, and a shorter season than the coast. Stony glacial soils that reward the gardener who feeds and drains them.
Even in Hopedale, 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 Hopedale 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 Hopedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hopedale — the short answer
Hopedale, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~195
- 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 Hopedale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hopedale's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hopedale
Each reading below is measured for Hopedale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHopedale runs about 195 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
MeasuredHopedale 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 Hopedale is in
Hopedale sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hopedale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Hopedale
Every plant below cleared Hopedale's own zone 6b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hopedale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Hopedale
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hopedale, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hopedale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hopedale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE GRAFTON AND UPTON RAILROAD - HOPEDALE LOCATIONBrownfields · 550 ft
- HOPEDALE GARAGE (REAR)Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HOPEDALE ENGINE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HOPEDALE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SOLECT ENERGY VEHICLE ACCIDENTBrownfields · 800 ft
- HOPEDALE TOWN OF HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 850 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #2153Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 0197 2153Brownfields · 900 ft
- HOPEDALE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LORD & SON AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- TOWN OF HOPEDALE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HOPEDALE PROPERTIES LLCBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hopedale'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 Hopedale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hopedale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hopedale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hopedale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hopedale — Superfund (30 sites) and Brownfields (900 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hopedale
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 Hopedale average
Your land is one point inside Hopedale
Everything above resolves to Hopedale 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 Hopedale Average
Hopedale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hopedale
- ●One soil character for all of Hopedale
- ●Frost dates read at Hopedale's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hopedale's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hopedale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hopedale, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hopedale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hopedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hopedale average
How we know this about Hopedale
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 Hopedale’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 Hopedale
When does frost risk typically end in Hopedale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hopedale typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Hopedale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hopedale 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hopedale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hopedale sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 10, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hopedale?
The federal record around Hopedale runs heavier than most — 1,572 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (900), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Hopedale?
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 Hopedale's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hopedale'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 Hopedale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hopedale's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,119 acres it covers and 1,572 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hopedale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hopedale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 24 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,572 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hopedale, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hopedale's boundary and the 1,119 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hopedale's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hopedalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hopedale's 1,119 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worcester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worcester 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 Worcester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hopedale's 1,119 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hopedale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,119 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Hopedale-wide figureread your own land →
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