Norwood, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Greater Boston
The state's dense urban core, where growing means raised beds, community plots, and back-lot kitchen gardens more than open field. A long, mild season for the region — but city soil is the thing to know before you dig.
Even in Norwood, 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 Norwood 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 Norwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Norwood — the short answer
Norwood, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Norwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norwood's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Norwood
Each reading below is measured for Norwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorwood runs about 194 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNorwood 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 Norwood is in
Norwood sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Norwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Norfolk County.
What Grows in Norwood
Every plant below cleared Norwood's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Norwood?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Norwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Norwood, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Norwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Norwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LINDBERG HEAT TREATBrownfields · 700 ft
- LINDBERG HEAT TREATToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- SAVOGRAN COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- NORWOODBrownfields · 900 ft
- NORWOOD WATER DEPT. (MWRA)PFAS · 950 ft
- JIMS AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR CENTER CO INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BENCHMARK ELEVATORBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SAVOGRAN COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BROADWAY SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KELLY'S FILLING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MATTAPOISETT TRUCK & EQUIPMENT LCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SANSONE MOTORS INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norwood'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 Norwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Norwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Norwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norwood, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,956 sites within ~10 miles of Norwood. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Norwood
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 Norwood average
Your land is one point inside Norwood
Everything above resolves to Norwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Norwood Average
Norwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Norwood
- ●One soil character for all of Norwood
- ●Frost dates read at Norwood's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norwood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Norwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norwood, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norwood average
How we know this about Norwood
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 Norwood’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 Norwood
When does frost risk typically end in Norwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norwood typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Norwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Norwood typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Norwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norwood sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 9, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norwood?
The federal record around Norwood runs heavier than most — 3,037 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,956), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Norwood?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 23 (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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Norwood's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norwood'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 Norwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Norwood's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,643 acres it covers and 3,037 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Norwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 23 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,037 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Norwood, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Norwood's boundary and the 6,643 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Norwood's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Norwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Norwood's 6,643 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Norfolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Norfolk 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 Norfolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Norwood's 6,643 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Norwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,643 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Norwood-wide figureread your own land →
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