North Falmouth, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
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 Falmouth, 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 Falmouth 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 Falmouth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Falmouth — the short answer
North Falmouth, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- 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 7a is North Falmouth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Falmouth's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Falmouth
Each reading below is measured for North Falmouth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Falmouth runs about 231 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 Falmouth sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Falmouth is in
North Falmouth sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Falmouth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in North Falmouth
Every plant below cleared North Falmouth's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Falmouth?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 North Falmouth
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from North Falmouth, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Falmouth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Falmouth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVIS RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SAFE HARBOR MARINAS FIDDLERS COVEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BREWER FIDDLER'S COVE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WILD HARBOR GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SPORTS IMPORTS OF CAPE CODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DERMATOLOGY OF CAPE COD NEDABrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TELEDYNE INSTRUMENTS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- TELEDYNE INSTRUMENTS, INC.Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- S K MACHINE CORPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MASSDOT HIGHWAY DIVISION 95Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- MA-FSW 187Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Falmouth'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 Falmouth.
Total Sites
3,234
within ~10 miles of North Falmouth
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Falmouth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Falmouth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Falmouth, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 2,638 sites within ~10 miles of North Falmouth. 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 Falmouth
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 Falmouth average
Your land is one point inside North Falmouth
Everything above resolves to North Falmouth 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 Falmouth Average
North Falmouth Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across North Falmouth
- ●One soil character for all of North Falmouth
- ●Frost dates read at North Falmouth's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Falmouth's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Falmouth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Falmouth, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Falmouth averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Falmouth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Falmouth average
How we know this about North Falmouth
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 Falmouth’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 Falmouth
When does frost risk typically end in North Falmouth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Falmouth typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in North Falmouth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Falmouth typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Falmouth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Falmouth sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Nov 3, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Falmouth?
The federal record around North Falmouth is a meaningful one — 3,234 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,638), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Falmouth?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Falmouth's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Falmouth'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 Falmouth’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Falmouth's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,492 acres it covers and 3,234 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Falmouth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Falmouth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 17 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Falmouth, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Falmouth's boundary and the 2,492 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Falmouth's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Falmouthlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Falmouth's 2,492 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 Falmouth's 2,492 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Falmouth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,492 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Falmouth-wide figureread your own land →
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