Methuen, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
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 Methuen, 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 Methuen 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 Methuen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Methuen — the short answer
Methuen, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Methuen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Methuen's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Methuen
Each reading below is measured for Methuen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMethuen runs about 200 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
MeasuredMethuen 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 Methuen is in
Methuen sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Methuen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Methuen
Every plant below cleared Methuen's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Methuen?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Methuen
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Methuen, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Methuen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Methuen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- METHUEN WATER DEPTPFAS · 25 ft
- METHUEN LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- METHUEN LANDFILLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- NESC CREDIT UNIONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #118774Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- METHUEN SERVICE INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- METHUEN SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ASPEN DENTALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WALMART 3491Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- HOME DEPOT 2685Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- RENSCH'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Methuen'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 Methuen.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Methuen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Methuen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Methuen, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Methuen — Superfund (31 sites) and Brownfields (1,091 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Methuen
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 Methuen average
Your land is one point inside Methuen
Everything above resolves to Methuen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Methuen Average
Methuen Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Methuen
- ●One soil character for all of Methuen
- ●Frost dates read at Methuen's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Methuen's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Methuen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Methuen, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Methuen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Methuen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Methuen average
How we know this about Methuen
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 Methuen’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 Methuen
When does frost risk typically end in Methuen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Methuen 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 Methuen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Methuen typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Methuen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Methuen sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 14, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Methuen?
The federal record around Methuen runs heavier than most — 1,958 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,091), the nearest PFAS 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 Methuen?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Methuen's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Methuen'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 Methuen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Methuen's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,216 acres it covers and 1,958 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Methuen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Methuen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 28 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,958 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Methuen, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Methuen's boundary and the 14,216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Methuen's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Methuenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Methuen's 14,216 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 Methuen's 14,216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Methuen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Methuen-wide figureread your own land →
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