Leominster, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Leominster, 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 Leominster 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 Leominster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leominster — the short answer
Leominster, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 18K 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Leominster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leominster's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leominster
Each reading below is measured for Leominster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeominster runs about 196 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
MeasuredLeominster 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 Leominster is in
Leominster sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leominster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Leominster
Every plant below cleared Leominster's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leominster?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Leominster
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Leominster, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leominster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leominster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEOMINSTER ICE COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- LEOMINSTER ICE COMPANY INCBrownfields · 450 ft
- 158 PLEASANT AVE LLCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- LEOMINSTER WATER DIVISIONPFAS · 2000 ft
- PREMIER NORTH CONSULTINGBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HARBOR VILLAGE CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- VERIZON MASSACHUSETTS #872406Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ANTHONY TOOL AND DIE CORP.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- UltraMart Convenience Stores, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HARWICH ROAD REALTY LIMITED PARTNERSHIPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS 10427Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 0810Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leominster'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 Leominster.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leominster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leominster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leominster, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leominster — Toxics Release Inventory (85 sites) and Brownfields (665 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Leominster
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 Leominster average
Your land is one point inside Leominster
Everything above resolves to Leominster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Leominster Average
Leominster Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Leominster
- ●One soil character for all of Leominster
- ●Frost dates read at Leominster's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leominster's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leominster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leominster, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leominster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leominster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leominster average
How we know this about Leominster
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 Leominster’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 Leominster
When does frost risk typically end in Leominster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leominster 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 Leominster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leominster 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leominster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leominster sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leominster?
The federal record around Leominster is a meaningful one — 1,093 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (665), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Leominster?
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 Leominster's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leominster'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 Leominster’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leominster's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,447 acres it covers and 1,093 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leominster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leominster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 24 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,093 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leominster, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leominster's boundary and the 18,447 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leominster's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leominsterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leominster's 18,447 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 Leominster's 18,447 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leominster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,447 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Leominster-wide figureread your own land →
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