Scituate, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in South Shore
The coastal band south of Boston into old cranberry country — sandy, acidic ground and a maritime season that runs a touch longer than the interior. Bog and shoreline shape what has always grown well down here.
Even in Scituate, 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 Scituate 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 Scituate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scituate — the short answer
Scituate, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- 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 7a is Scituate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scituate's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scituate
Each reading below is measured for Scituate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScituate runs about 230 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
MeasuredScituate 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 Scituate is in
Scituate sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scituate's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plymouth County.
What Grows in Scituate
Every plant below cleared Scituate's own zone 7a and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scituate?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Scituate
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Scituate, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scituate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scituate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLYMOUTH & BROCKTON ST RR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SCITUATE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MBTA KEOLIS GREENBUSH LAYOVERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- JAMES LANDING DRIFTWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SCITUATE CONCRETE PIPEToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- SCITUATE CONCRETE PRODUCTS - SCITUATEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SCITUATE WATER POLLUTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SMITH AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FRANCIS M LITCHFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ANDERSON FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FULCRUM HARBOR LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TOTMAN ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scituate'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 Scituate.
Total Sites
737
within ~10 miles of Scituate
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scituate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scituate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scituate, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scituate — PFAS (9 sites) and Brownfields (438 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Scituate
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 Scituate average
Your land is one point inside Scituate
Everything above resolves to Scituate 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 Scituate Average
Scituate Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Scituate
- ●One soil character for all of Scituate
- ●Frost dates read at Scituate's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scituate's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scituate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scituate, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scituate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scituate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scituate average
How we know this about Scituate
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 Scituate’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 Scituate
When does frost risk typically end in Scituate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scituate typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Scituate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scituate typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scituate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scituate sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 1, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scituate?
The federal record around Scituate is a meaningful one — 737 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (438), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Scituate?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scituate's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scituate'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 Scituate’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Scituate's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,600 acres it covers and 737 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scituate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scituate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 15 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 737 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scituate, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scituate's boundary and the 2,600 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scituate's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Scituatelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scituate's 2,600 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plymouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plymouth 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 Plymouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scituate's 2,600 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scituate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,600 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Scituate-wide figureread your own land →