Orleans, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
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 Orleans, 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 Orleans 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 Orleans — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Orleans — the short answer
Orleans, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7b, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7b is Orleans's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orleans's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orleans
Each reading below is measured for Orleans itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrleans runs about 244 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
MeasuredOrleans sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Orleans is in
Orleans sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orleans's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in Orleans
Every plant below cleared Orleans's own zone 7b and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orleans?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Orleans
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Orleans, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orleans
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orleans. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CVS #1857Brownfields · 1000 ft
- LOWER CAPE RADIOLOGY/MAMMOGRABrownfields · 1200 ft
- CHRIS BULLOCK MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MA-OSW 124Nitrate · 2000 ft
- WEST AND SKAKET LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MA-OSW 168Nitrate · 2100 ft
- MA-OSW 172Nitrate · 2100 ft
- MA-OSW 139Nitrate · 2100 ft
- MA-OSW 162Nitrate · 2100 ft
- MA-OSW 164Nitrate · 2100 ft
- MA-OSW 161Nitrate · 2200 ft
- MA-OSW 140Nitrate · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orleans'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 Orleans.
Total Sites
606
within ~10 miles of Orleans
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orleans
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orleans
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orleans, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 324 sites within ~10 miles of Orleans. 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 Orleans
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 Orleans average
Your land is one point inside Orleans
Everything above resolves to Orleans as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Orleans Average
Orleans Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Orleans
- ●One soil character for all of Orleans
- ●Frost dates read at Orleans's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orleans's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orleans
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orleans, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orleans averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orleans — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orleans average
How we know this about Orleans
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 Orleans’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 Orleans
When does frost risk typically end in Orleans?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orleans typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Orleans?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orleans typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orleans?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orleans sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 10, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orleans?
The federal record around Orleans is a meaningful one — 606 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (324), the nearest Brownfields 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 Orleans?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orleans's scale — its 7b band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orleans'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 Orleans’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orleans's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,485 acres it covers and 606 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orleans's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orleans's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 24 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 606 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orleans, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orleans's boundary and the 1,485 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orleans's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orleanslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orleans's 1,485 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 Orleans's 1,485 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orleans you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,485 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Orleans-wide figureread your own land →