North Attleborough, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
You’re in Southeastern Massachusetts
The low coastal plain of the South Coast — mild, moist, and worked for market vegetables and small orchards for generations. One of the gentler corners of the Massachusetts growing map.
Even in North Attleborough, 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 North Attleborough 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 North Attleborough — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Attleborough — the short answer
North Attleborough, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 12K 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 North Attleborough's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Attleborough's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Attleborough
Each reading below is measured for North Attleborough itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Attleborough runs about 211 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
MeasuredNorth Attleborough 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 North Attleborough is in
North Attleborough sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Attleborough's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bristol County.
What Grows in North Attleborough
Every plant below cleared North Attleborough's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Attleborough?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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 North Attleborough
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from North Attleborough, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Attleborough
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Attleborough Town. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS 5644Brownfields · 400 ft
- DERMATOLOGY PROFESSIONALSBrownfields · 400 ft
- WESTCOTT EQUIPMENT CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #20701Brownfields · 600 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 6767 2533Brownfields · 700 ft
- AUTOZONE 5034Brownfields · 700 ft
- ATTLEBORO WATER DEPTPFAS · 750 ft
- NORTH ATTLEBORO WATER DEPTPFAS · 750 ft
- STOP & SHOP SUPERMARKET 0490Brownfields · 850 ft
- NORTH BOWL LANESBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ADVANCED AUTO SALESBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MINI SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Attleborough'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 North Attleborough.
Total Sites
2,772
within ~10 miles of North Attleborough Town
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
51 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Attleborough Town
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Attleborough Town
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Attleborough, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Attleborough Town — Superfund (51 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (250 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.
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 North Attleborough
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 North Attleborough average
Your land is one point inside North Attleborough
Everything above resolves to North Attleborough as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 North Attleborough Average
North Attleborough Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Attleborough
- ●One soil character for all of North Attleborough
- ●Frost dates read at North Attleborough's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Attleborough's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Attleborough
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Attleborough, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Attleborough averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Attleborough — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Attleborough average
How we know this about North Attleborough
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 North Attleborough’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 North Attleborough
When does frost risk typically end in North Attleborough?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Attleborough typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in North Attleborough?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Attleborough 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 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Attleborough?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Attleborough sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Attleborough?
The federal record around North Attleborough runs heavier than most — 2,772 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,267), 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 North Attleborough?
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 North Attleborough's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Attleborough'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 North Attleborough’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Attleborough's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,068 acres it covers and 2,772 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Attleborough's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Attleborough's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,772 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Attleborough, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Attleborough's boundary and the 12,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Attleborough's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Attleboroughlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Attleborough's 12,068 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bristol County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bristol 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 Bristol County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Attleborough's 12,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Attleborough you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,068 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 North Attleborough-wide figureread your own land →