North Eastham, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Cape Cod & the Islands
A sandy, sea-wrapped peninsula and islands with the state's warmest, longest season — and its most maritime one. Acidic soils long worked for cranberries and beach plums; wind and salt are the constant neighbors of every garden.
Even in North Eastham, 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 Eastham 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 Eastham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Eastham — the short answer
North Eastham, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- 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 7b is North Eastham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Eastham's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Eastham
Each reading below is measured for North Eastham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Eastham runs about 246 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 Eastham sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Eastham is in
North Eastham sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Eastham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in North Eastham
Every plant below cleared North Eastham's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Eastham?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Eastham
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from North Eastham, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Eastham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Eastham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MA-EGW 37Nitrate · 1900 ft
- NICKERSON SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- EASTHAM SANITARY LANDFILLSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- MA-EGW 61 EASTHAM,MANitrate · 1.6 mi
- CAPE COD HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MA-EGW 22Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- MA-EGW 72Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- CAPE COD READY MIXBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MA-EGW 65Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- MA-EGW 66Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- MA-EGW 64Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- MA-EGW 62Nitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Eastham'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 Eastham.
Total Sites
452
within ~10 miles of North Eastham
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Eastham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Eastham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Eastham, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 274 sites within ~10 miles of North Eastham. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in North Eastham
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 Eastham average
Your land is one point inside North Eastham
Everything above resolves to North Eastham 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 North Eastham Average
North Eastham Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North Eastham
- ●One soil character for all of North Eastham
- ●Frost dates read at North Eastham's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Eastham's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Eastham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Eastham, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Eastham averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Eastham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Eastham average
How we know this about North Eastham
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 Eastham’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 Eastham
When does frost risk typically end in North Eastham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Eastham typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in North Eastham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Eastham typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Eastham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Eastham sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 11, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Eastham?
The federal record around North Eastham is a meaningful one — 452 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (274), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 North Eastham?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Eastham's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Eastham'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 Eastham’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Eastham's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,204 acres it covers and 452 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Eastham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Eastham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 25 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 452 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Eastham, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Eastham's boundary and the 2,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Eastham's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Easthamlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Eastham's 2,204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barnstable County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barnstable 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 Barnstable County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Eastham's 2,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Eastham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 North Eastham-wide figureread your own land →