Taunton, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Taunton, 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 Taunton 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 Taunton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Taunton — the short answer
Taunton, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 30K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 30K 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 Taunton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Taunton's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Taunton
Each reading below is measured for Taunton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTaunton runs about 202 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
MeasuredTaunton 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 Taunton is in
Taunton sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Taunton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bristol County.
What Grows in Taunton
Every plant below cleared Taunton's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Taunton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Taunton
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Taunton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Taunton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Taunton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VERIZON MASSACHUSETTS #514507Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- VERIZON NEW ENGLAND INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- H & L BLOOM BUS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- TAUNTON TRIAL COURTBrownfields · 450 ft
- TAUNTON SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Canaan FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- TAUNTON MA MAIN POST OFFICEBrownfields · 550 ft
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BROWN S SERVICE CENTER INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- FIFTY WASHINGTON STREET ASSOCIATESBrownfields · 700 ft
- DERMODY CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 700 ft
- GETTY STATION #30557Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Taunton'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 Taunton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Taunton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Taunton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Taunton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Taunton — Superfund (22 sites) and Brownfields (660 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Taunton
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 Taunton average
Your land is one point inside Taunton
Everything above resolves to Taunton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 30K 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 Taunton Average
Taunton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Taunton
- ●One soil character for all of Taunton
- ●Frost dates read at Taunton's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Taunton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Taunton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Taunton, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Taunton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Taunton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Taunton average
How we know this about Taunton
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 Taunton’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 Taunton
When does frost risk typically end in Taunton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Taunton typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Taunton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Taunton typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Taunton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Taunton sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 16, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Taunton?
The federal record around Taunton is a meaningful one — 1,148 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (660), 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 Taunton?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Taunton's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Taunton'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 Taunton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Taunton's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 29,893 acres it covers and 1,148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Taunton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Taunton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 30 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Taunton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Taunton's boundary and the 29,893 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Taunton's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tauntonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Taunton's 29,893 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 Taunton's 29,893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Taunton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 29,893 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 Taunton-wide figureread your own land →