North Pembroke, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 South Shore
The coastal band south of Boston into old cranberry country — sandy, acidic ground and a maritime season that runs a touch longer than the interior. Bog and shoreline shape what has always grown well down here.
Even in North Pembroke, 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 Pembroke 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 Pembroke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Pembroke — the short answer
North Pembroke, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Pembroke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Pembroke's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Pembroke
Each reading below is measured for North Pembroke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Pembroke runs about 209 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 Pembroke 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 Pembroke is in
North Pembroke sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Pembroke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plymouth County.
What Grows in North Pembroke
Every plant below cleared North Pembroke's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Pembroke?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around North Pembroke
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from North Pembroke, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Pembroke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Pembroke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SADEK INC DBA PEMBROKE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- TAYLOR RENTAL CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HYER INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PEMBROKE XTRA MARTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TOWN OF PEMBROKEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PEMBROKE XTRAMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- THAYER FINISHING AND RESTORATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FARRAR RESIDENCEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ANIMAL CLINIC ON WHEELSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PETCO STORE 3753Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SALLYS BEAUTY SUPPLY 10011Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- NEW ENGLAND FRESHWATER MARINEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Pembroke'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 Pembroke.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Pembroke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Pembroke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Pembroke, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Pembroke — PFAS (14 sites) and Brownfields (676 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pembroke
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 Pembroke average
Your land is one point inside North Pembroke
Everything above resolves to North Pembroke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Pembroke Average
North Pembroke Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Pembroke
- ●One soil character for all of North Pembroke
- ●Frost dates read at North Pembroke's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Pembroke's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Pembroke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Pembroke, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Pembroke averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Pembroke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Pembroke average
How we know this about North Pembroke
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 Pembroke’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 Pembroke
When does frost risk typically end in North Pembroke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Pembroke typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in North Pembroke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Pembroke typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Pembroke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Pembroke sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 21, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Pembroke?
The federal record around North Pembroke runs heavier than most — 1,168 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (676), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles 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 Pembroke?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Pembroke's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Pembroke'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 Pembroke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Pembroke's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,864 acres it covers and 1,168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Pembroke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Pembroke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 4 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Pembroke, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Pembroke's boundary and the 2,864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Pembroke's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Pembrokelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Pembroke's 2,864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plymouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plymouth 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 Plymouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Pembroke's 2,864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Pembroke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,864 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Pembroke-wide figureread your own land →
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