Monson Center, 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.
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 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 Monson Center, 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 Monson Center 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 Monson Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monson Center — the short answer
Monson Center, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~192
- 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 Monson Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monson Center's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monson Center
Each reading below is measured for Monson Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonson Center runs about 192 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
MeasuredMonson Center 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 Monson Center is in
Monson Center sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Monson Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampden County.
What Grows in Monson Center
Every plant below cleared Monson Center's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monson Center?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Monson Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Monson Center, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Monson Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monson Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF MONSON HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ZERO CORP ZERO EAST DIVToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- MONSON HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MA-M4W 129Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- SQUIER AND CO INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MONSON SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WALGREENS 19421Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- BILLS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GRACE WOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LJR TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ASPHALT PAVING & MAINTENANCE INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- DIVERSIFIED METALS INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monson Center'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 Monson Center.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monson Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monson Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monson Center, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Monson Center — Toxics Release Inventory (30 sites) and PFAS (4 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Monson Center
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 Monson Center average
Your land is one point inside Monson Center
Everything above resolves to Monson Center 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 Monson Center Average
Monson Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Monson Center
- ●One soil character for all of Monson Center
- ●Frost dates read at Monson Center's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monson Center's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monson Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monson Center, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monson Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monson Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monson Center average
How we know this about Monson Center
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 Monson Center’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 Monson Center
When does frost risk typically end in Monson Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monson Center typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Monson Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monson Center 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monson Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monson Center sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 10, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monson Center?
The federal record around Monson Center is a meaningful one — 456 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (225), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles 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 Monson Center?
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 Monson Center's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monson Center'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 Monson Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Monson Center's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,147 acres it covers and 456 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monson Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monson Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 24 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 456 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monson Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monson Center's boundary and the 2,147 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monson Center's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Monson Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monson Center's 2,147 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampden 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 Hampden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monson Center's 2,147 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monson Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,147 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Monson Center-wide figureread your own land →
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