Newton, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Greater Boston
The state's dense urban core, where growing means raised beds, community plots, and back-lot kitchen gardens more than open field. A long, mild season for the region — but city soil is the thing to know before you dig.
Even in Newton, 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 Newton 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 Newton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newton — the short answer
Newton, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 11K 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)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Newton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newton's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newton
Each reading below is measured for Newton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewton runs about 206 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
MeasuredNewton 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 Newton is in
Newton sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Middlesex County.
What Grows in Newton
Every plant below cleared Newton's own zone 6b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Newton
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Newton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHELL OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- 1114 BEACON ST LLCBrownfields · 400 ft
- Global Montello Group #1454Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GPL HOLDINGS LLC 1126 BEACON STBrownfields · 400 ft
- MOBIL OIL CORP SS 016Brownfields · 400 ft
- WALGREENS 02330Brownfields · 450 ft
- JAYLIN CLEANERSBrownfields · 550 ft
- J COYLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WHOLE FOODS MARKET - NEWTON (NEW)Brownfields · 750 ft
- NEWTON CEMETARY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NEWTON CEMETERY CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MWRA COMMONWEALTH AVE PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newton'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 Newton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newton, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 5,039 sites within ~10 miles of Newton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Newton
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 Newton average
Your land is one point inside Newton
Everything above resolves to Newton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Newton Average
Newton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Newton
- ●One soil character for all of Newton
- ●Frost dates read at Newton's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newton, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newton average
How we know this about Newton
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 Newton’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 Newton
When does frost risk typically end in Newton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newton 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 Newton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newton typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newton sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 16, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newton?
The federal record around Newton runs heavier than most — 7,152 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,039), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Newton?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newton's scale — its 6b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newton'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 Newton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newton's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,410 acres it covers and 7,152 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 30 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newton's boundary and the 11,410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newton's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newton's 11,410 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Middlesex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Middlesex 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 Middlesex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newton's 11,410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,410 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 Newton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Massachusetts
Growing region