North Brookfield, 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Central Massachusetts
The inland heart of the state — rolling upland, cooler nights, and a shorter season than the coast. Stony glacial soils that reward the gardener who feeds and drains them.
Even in North Brookfield, 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 Brookfield 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 Brookfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Brookfield — the short answer
North Brookfield, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 945 acres of town.
- 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 945 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 North Brookfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Brookfield's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Brookfield
Each reading below is measured for North Brookfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Brookfield runs about 202 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 Brookfield 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 North Brookfield is in
North Brookfield sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Brookfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in North Brookfield
Every plant below cleared North Brookfield's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Brookfield?
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 30 — 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 North Brookfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from North Brookfield, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Brookfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Brookfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOMEBrownfields · 300 ft
- AZTEC INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- QUABAUG CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SALEM HR TRANSPORTBrownfields · 700 ft
- QUABAUG RUBBER COBrownfields · 950 ft
- QUABAUG RUBBER COToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- NORTH BROOKFIELD 56 SCHOOL ST FIRE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TOWN OF N BROOKFIELD HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HUCKS MOBIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AUTO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HANNAFORD SUPERMARKET & PHARMACY 8011Brownfields · 1700 ft
- PHIL'S SERVICE STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Brookfield'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 Brookfield.
Total Sites
416
within ~10 miles of North Brookfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Brookfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Brookfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Brookfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Brookfield — PFAS (5 sites) and Brownfields (223 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in North Brookfield
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 Brookfield average
Your land is one point inside North Brookfield
Everything above resolves to North Brookfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 945 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 North Brookfield Average
North Brookfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North Brookfield
- ●One soil character for all of North Brookfield
- ●Frost dates read at North Brookfield's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Brookfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Brookfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Brookfield, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Brookfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Brookfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Brookfield average
How we know this about North Brookfield
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 North Brookfield’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 North Brookfield
When does frost risk typically end in North Brookfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Brookfield 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 North Brookfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Brookfield 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 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Brookfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Brookfield sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 16, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Brookfield?
The federal record around North Brookfield is a meaningful one — 416 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (223), the nearest Brownfields 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 North Brookfield?
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 North Brookfield's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Brookfield'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 Brookfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Brookfield's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 945 acres it covers and 416 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Brookfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Brookfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 30 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 416 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Brookfield, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Brookfield's boundary and the 945 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Brookfield's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Brookfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Brookfield's 945 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 North Brookfield's 945 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Brookfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 945 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 Brookfield-wide figureread your own land →