South Duxbury, 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.
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 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 South Duxbury, 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 South Duxbury 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 South Duxbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Duxbury — the short answer
South Duxbury, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 South Duxbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Duxbury's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Duxbury
Each reading below is measured for South Duxbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Duxbury runs about 212 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
MeasuredSouth Duxbury 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 South Duxbury is in
South Duxbury sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Duxbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plymouth County.
What Grows in South Duxbury
Every plant below cleared South Duxbury's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Duxbury?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 South Duxbury
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from South Duxbury, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Duxbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Duxbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KARR CHIROPRACTICBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VERIZON MASSACHUSETTS #512207Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DUXBURY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- NOURIA 1178Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- PMG #8668Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WALGREENS 18316Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- DUXBURY CLIPPERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CENTRAL FUEL @ CENTRAL FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TALL PINES RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DUXBURY WATERBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DUXBURY TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MAYFLOWER CEMETERIESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Duxbury'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 South Duxbury.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Duxbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Duxbury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Duxbury, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Duxbury — PFAS (8 sites) and Brownfields (433 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 South Duxbury
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 South Duxbury average
Your land is one point inside South Duxbury
Everything above resolves to South Duxbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 South Duxbury Average
South Duxbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across South Duxbury
- ●One soil character for all of South Duxbury
- ●Frost dates read at South Duxbury's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Duxbury's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Duxbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Duxbury, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Duxbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Duxbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Duxbury average
How we know this about South Duxbury
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 South Duxbury’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 South Duxbury
When does frost risk typically end in South Duxbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Duxbury typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in South Duxbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Duxbury typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Duxbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Duxbury sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 24, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Duxbury?
The federal record around South Duxbury is a meaningful one — 728 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (433), the nearest Brownfields 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 South Duxbury?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Duxbury's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Duxbury'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 South Duxbury’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Duxbury's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,878 acres it covers and 728 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Duxbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Duxbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 7 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 728 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Duxbury, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Duxbury's boundary and the 1,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Duxbury's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Duxburylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Duxbury's 1,878 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 South Duxbury's 1,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Duxbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,878 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 South Duxbury-wide figureread your own land →
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