North Plymouth, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own 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 Plymouth, 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Plymouth — the short answer
North Plymouth, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 797 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 797 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 Plymouth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Plymouth's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Plymouth
Each reading below is measured for North Plymouth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Plymouth runs about 214 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth is in
North Plymouth sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Plymouth's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Plymouth County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Plymouth
Every plant below cleared North Plymouth's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Plymouth?
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 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 9 — 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 Plymouth
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from North Plymouth, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Plymouth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Plymouth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARY ELENA WIRZBURGER ESTATEBrownfields · 500 ft
- THE CLEANISTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- B&B AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PLYMOUTH BOAT YARD LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CANTONI COAL & OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 10932Brownfields · 1300 ft
- LAIDLAW TRANSIT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EAGLE SNACKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PLYMOUTH DERMATOLOGY ASSOCIATESBrownfields · 1600 ft
- TUFANKJIAN HYUNDAI OF PLYMOUTHBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SGARZI PONTIAC/BUICK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PLYMOUTH HARBOR/CANNON ENGINEERING SITESuperfund · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Plymouth'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 Plymouth.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Plymouth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Plymouth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Plymouth, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Plymouth — PFAS (8 sites) and Brownfields (400 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Plymouth
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 Plymouth average
Your land is one point inside North Plymouth
Everything above resolves to North Plymouth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 797 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 Plymouth Average
North Plymouth Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across North Plymouth
- ●One soil character for all of North Plymouth
- ●Frost dates read at North Plymouth's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Plymouth's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Plymouth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Plymouth, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Plymouth averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Plymouth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Plymouth average
How we know this about North Plymouth
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 Plymouth’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 Plymouth
When does frost risk typically end in North Plymouth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Plymouth 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 Plymouth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Plymouth typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Plymouth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Plymouth sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 26, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Plymouth?
The federal record around North Plymouth is a meaningful one — 665 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (400), 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 Plymouth?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Plymouth's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Plymouth'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 Plymouth’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Plymouth's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 797 acres it covers and 665 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Plymouth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Plymouth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 9 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 665 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Plymouth, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Plymouth's boundary and the 797 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Plymouth sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Plymouthlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Plymouth's 797 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 Plymouth's 797 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Plymouth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 797 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 Plymouth-wide figureread your own land →
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