Lawrence, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
You’re in North Shore
The settled coast north of Boston — salt air, tidy town lots, and sea-tempered winters that hold the cold off a little longer than the hills inland. Wind and salt spray are the near-shore gardener's companions here.
Even in Lawrence, 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lawrence — the short answer
Lawrence, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- 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
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Lawrence's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawrence's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lawrence
Each reading below is measured for Lawrence itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLawrence runs about 209 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
MeasuredLawrence 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 Lawrence is in
Lawrence sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lawrence's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Lawrence
Every plant below cleared Lawrence's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lawrence?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (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 Lawrence
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Lawrence, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lawrence
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lawrence. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HELFRICH BROTHERS BOILER WORKSBrownfields · 200 ft
- CHEMCO CORPToxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- MERRIMAC PAPER COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- MERRIMAC PAPER COMPANYBrownfields · 450 ft
- CORK TECHNOLOGIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FIORI DEPOT MOTORSBrownfields · 550 ft
- MERRIMAC PAPER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ENERGY NORTH INC ABS GARAGEBrownfields · 600 ft
- LAWRENCE PUMPS A FLOWSERVE COToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- AMERICAN ELECTROPLATING COMPANYBrownfields · 800 ft
- LAWRENCE HYDROELECTRIC ASSOCIATESBrownfields · 900 ft
- ENERGY NORTH INCBrownfields · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawrence'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 Lawrence.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lawrence
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lawrence
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawrence, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lawrence — Superfund (44 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (170 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lawrence
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 Lawrence average
Your land is one point inside Lawrence
Everything above resolves to Lawrence as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Lawrence Average
Lawrence Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lawrence
- ●One soil character for all of Lawrence
- ●Frost dates read at Lawrence's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawrence's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lawrence
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawrence, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawrence averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawrence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrence average
How we know this about Lawrence
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 Lawrence’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 Lawrence
When does frost risk typically end in Lawrence?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrence typically lands around Apr 7, 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Lawrence?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrence 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lawrence?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawrence sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 19, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawrence?
The federal record around Lawrence runs heavier than most — 2,381 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,344), the nearest Brownfields 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 Lawrence?
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 Lawrence's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawrence'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 Lawrence’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lawrence's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,435 acres it covers and 2,381 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lawrence's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lawrence's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 2 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,381 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lawrence, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lawrence's boundary and the 4,435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lawrence's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lawrencelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lawrence's 4,435 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lawrence's 4,435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lawrence you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,435 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Lawrence-wide figureread your own land →
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