Popponesset, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Popponesset, 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 Popponesset 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 Popponesset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Popponesset — the short answer
Popponesset, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 191 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 191 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 Popponesset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Popponesset's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Popponesset
Each reading below is measured for Popponesset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPopponesset runs about 232 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
MeasuredPopponesset 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 Popponesset is in
Popponesset sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Popponesset's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in Popponesset
Every plant below cleared Popponesset's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Popponesset?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Popponesset
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Popponesset, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Popponesset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Popponesset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MA-413413070275301Nitrate · 1200 ft
- NEW SEABURY GOLF MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MA-MIW 32Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- MA-MIW 35Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- NEW SEABURY MARINA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- THE CLUB AT NEW SEABURYBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- MA-MIW 28Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- MA-MIW 29 MASHPEE, MANitrate · 1.7 mi
- MASHPEE NECK MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- A AND K SITE AND SEPTIC LLCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- LITTLE RIVER BOATYARD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FRANEY MEDICAL LABBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Popponesset'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 Popponesset.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Popponesset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Popponesset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Popponesset, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 2,762 sites within ~10 miles of Popponesset. 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 Popponesset
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 Popponesset average
Your land is one point inside Popponesset
Everything above resolves to Popponesset as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 191 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 Popponesset Average
Popponesset Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Popponesset
- ●One soil character for all of Popponesset
- ●Frost dates read at Popponesset's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Popponesset's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Popponesset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Popponesset, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Popponesset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Popponesset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Popponesset average
How we know this about Popponesset
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 Popponesset’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 Popponesset
When does frost risk typically end in Popponesset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Popponesset typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Popponesset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Popponesset typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Popponesset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Popponesset sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Nov 4, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Popponesset?
The federal record around Popponesset is a meaningful one — 3,118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,762), the nearest Nitrate 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 Popponesset?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Popponesset's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Popponesset'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 Popponesset’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Popponesset's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 191 acres it covers and 3,118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Popponesset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Popponesset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 18 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Popponesset, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Popponesset's boundary and the 191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Popponesset's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Popponessetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Popponesset's 191 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 Popponesset's 191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Popponesset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Popponesset-wide figureread your own land →