Springfield, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Springfield, 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 Springfield 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 Springfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Springfield — the short answer
Springfield, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 20K 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 6a is Springfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Springfield's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Springfield
Each reading below is measured for Springfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpringfield runs about 201 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
MeasuredSpringfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Springfield is in
Springfield sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Springfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampden County.
What Grows in Springfield
Every plant below cleared Springfield's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Springfield?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Springfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Springfield, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Springfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Springfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASS MUTUAL CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DAILY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MASSMUTUAL FINANCIAL GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PUTNAM VOCATION AND TECHNICAL ACADEMYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- HAMPDEN DODGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MASS MUTUAL INSURANCEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SPRINGFIELD HS OF SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- AQUARIUS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CONTINENTAL BAKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ST MICHAELS CEMETARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STEM MIDDLE ACADEMYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- KWIK PIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Springfield'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 Springfield.
Total Sites
2,949
within ~10 miles of Springfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Springfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Springfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Springfield, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,632 sites within ~10 miles of Springfield. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Springfield
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 Springfield average
Your land is one point inside Springfield
Everything above resolves to Springfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 city 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 Springfield Average
Springfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Springfield
- ●One soil character for all of Springfield
- ●Frost dates read at Springfield's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Springfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Springfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Springfield, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Springfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Springfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Springfield average
How we know this about Springfield
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Springfield’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Springfield
When does frost risk typically end in Springfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Springfield typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Springfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Springfield typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Springfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Springfield sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Springfield?
The federal record around Springfield is a meaningful one — 2,949 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,632), 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 Springfield?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Springfield's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Springfield'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 Springfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Springfield's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,397 acres it covers and 2,949 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Springfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Springfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 28 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,949 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Springfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Springfield's boundary and the 20,397 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Springfield's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Springfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Springfield's 20,397 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampden 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 Hampden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Springfield's 20,397 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Springfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,397 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 Springfield-wide figureread your own land →
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