Raynham Center, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Raynham Center, 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 Raynham Center 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 Raynham Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Raynham Center — the short answer
Raynham Center, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 6b is Raynham Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Raynham Center's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Raynham Center
Each reading below is measured for Raynham Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRaynham Center runs about 197 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
MeasuredRaynham Center 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 Raynham Center is in
Raynham Center sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Raynham Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bristol County.
What Grows in Raynham Center
Every plant below cleared Raynham Center's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Raynham Center?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Raynham Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Raynham Center, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Raynham Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Raynham Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAYNHAM CENTER WATER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MA-RAW 139Nitrate · 1900 ft
- MATRIA BUICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- THEODORE JANUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JANUSE T TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- TOWN OF RAYNHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NORTH RAYNHAM WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 0.7 mi
- TOWN OF RAYNHAM HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- AGGREGATE INDUSTRIES NORTHEAST REGIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- RAYNHAM SANITARY LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WASTE MANAGEMENT OF MASSACHUSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MONRO MUFFLER #425Brownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Raynham Center'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 Raynham Center.
Total Sites
1,309
within ~10 miles of Raynham Center
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
22 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Raynham Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Raynham Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Raynham Center, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Raynham Center — Superfund (22 sites) and Brownfields (777 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Raynham Center
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 Raynham Center average
Your land is one point inside Raynham Center
Everything above resolves to Raynham Center 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 Raynham Center Average
Raynham Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Raynham Center
- ●One soil character for all of Raynham Center
- ●Frost dates read at Raynham Center's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Raynham Center's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Raynham Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Raynham Center, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Raynham Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Raynham Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Raynham Center average
How we know this about Raynham Center
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 Raynham Center’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 Raynham Center
When does frost risk typically end in Raynham Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Raynham Center typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Raynham Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Raynham Center typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Raynham Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Raynham Center sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 15, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Raynham Center?
The federal record around Raynham Center is a meaningful one — 1,309 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (777), 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 Raynham Center?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Raynham Center's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Raynham Center'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 Raynham Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Raynham Center's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,698 acres it covers and 1,309 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Raynham Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Raynham Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 29 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,309 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Raynham Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Raynham Center's boundary and the 2,698 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Raynham Center's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Raynham Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Raynham Center's 2,698 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 Raynham Center's 2,698 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Raynham Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,698 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 Raynham Center-wide figureread your own land →