Provincetown, 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 Provincetown, 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 Provincetown 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 Provincetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Provincetown — the short answer
Provincetown, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- 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 Provincetown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Provincetown's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Provincetown
Each reading below is measured for Provincetown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredProvincetown 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
MeasuredProvincetown 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 Provincetown is in
Provincetown sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Provincetown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in Provincetown
Every plant below cleared Provincetown's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Provincetown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Provincetown
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Provincetown, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Provincetown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Provincetown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DERIGGS ICE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PROVINCETOWN MECHANICS INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- OUTER CAPE HEALTH SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HEALTH ASSOC OF PROVINCETOWN IBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MA-PZW 77Nitrate · 2300 ft
- TFS NewCo LLC #37385Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 11131Brownfields · 2400 ft
- LEXVEST 312-314 COMMERCIAL LLCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MV AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MILAN REALTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- QUITZOW RESIDENCEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Provincetown'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 Provincetown.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Provincetown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Provincetown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Provincetown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Provincetown, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Provincetown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Provincetown
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 Provincetown average
Your land is one point inside Provincetown
Everything above resolves to Provincetown 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 Provincetown Average
Provincetown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Provincetown
- ●One soil character for all of Provincetown
- ●Frost dates read at Provincetown's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Provincetown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Provincetown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Provincetown, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Provincetown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Provincetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Provincetown average
How we know this about Provincetown
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 Provincetown’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 Provincetown
When does frost risk typically end in Provincetown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Provincetown typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Provincetown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Provincetown typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Provincetown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Provincetown sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 9, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Provincetown?
The federal record around Provincetown is a meaningful one — 96 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Provincetown?
From about Oct 24 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 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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Provincetown's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Provincetown'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 Provincetown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Provincetown's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,144 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Provincetown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Provincetown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 23 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Provincetown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Provincetown's boundary and the 1,144 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Provincetown's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Provincetownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Provincetown's 1,144 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 Provincetown's 1,144 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Provincetown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,144 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Provincetown-wide figureread your own land →
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