North Westport, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Southeastern Massachusetts
The low coastal plain of the South Coast — mild, moist, and worked for market vegetables and small orchards for generations. One of the gentler corners of the Massachusetts growing map.
Even in North Westport, 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 Westport 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 Westport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Westport — the short answer
North Westport, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- 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 7a is North Westport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Westport's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Westport
Each reading below is measured for North Westport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Westport runs about 239 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 Westport 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 Westport is in
North Westport sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Westport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bristol County.
What Grows in North Westport
Every plant below cleared North Westport's own zone 7a and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Westport?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around North Westport
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from North Westport, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Westport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Westport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROADWAY EXPRESS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- S&H Supreme State Road, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ROUTE 6 GASBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ROUTE 6 GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SUPREME WESTPORT REALTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- EXPRESS TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RALCO ELECTRIC INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CELEBRITY AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BTECH ACOUSTICS LLCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CELLDEX THERAPEUTICS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- UMASS DARTMOUTHBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- L3HARRIS OCEANSERVER INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Westport'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 Westport.
Total Sites
1,599
within ~10 miles of North Westport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Westport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Westport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Westport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Westport — Brownfields (859 sites) and Superfund (21 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in North Westport
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 Westport average
Your land is one point inside North Westport
Everything above resolves to North Westport 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 Westport Average
North Westport Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across North Westport
- ●One soil character for all of North Westport
- ●Frost dates read at North Westport's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Westport's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Westport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Westport, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Westport averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Westport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Westport average
How we know this about North Westport
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 Westport’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 Westport
When does frost risk typically end in North Westport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Westport typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in North Westport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Westport typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Westport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Westport sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 7, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Westport?
The federal record around North Westport is a meaningful one — 1,599 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (859), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Westport?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Westport's scale — its 7a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Westport'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 Westport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Westport's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,321 acres it covers and 1,599 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Westport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Westport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 21 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,599 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Westport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Westport's boundary and the 3,321 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Westport's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Westportlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Westport's 3,321 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bristol County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bristol 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 Bristol County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Westport's 3,321 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Westport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,321 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Westport-wide figureread your own land →