Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Cape Cod & the Islands
A sandy, sea-wrapped peninsula and islands with the state's warmest, longest season — and its most maritime one. Acidic soils long worked for cranberries and beach plums; wind and salt are the constant neighbors of every garden.
Even in Vineyard Haven, 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 Vineyard Haven 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 Vineyard Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vineyard Haven — the short answer
Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 835 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 835 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 Vineyard Haven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vineyard Haven's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vineyard Haven
Each reading below is measured for Vineyard Haven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVineyard Haven runs about 228 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
MeasuredVineyard Haven 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 Vineyard Haven is in
Vineyard Haven sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vineyard Haven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dukes County.
What Grows in Vineyard Haven
Every plant below cleared Vineyard Haven's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vineyard Haven?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Vineyard Haven
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Vineyard Haven, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vineyard Haven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vineyard Haven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TISBURY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- VINEYARD HAVEN XTRA MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DRAKE PETROLEUM VINEYARD HAVENBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MARK ALAN LOVEWELLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- MARTHA'S VINEYARD TIMESBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VINEYARD HAVEN MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TISBURY MARINA LLC DBA VINEYARD HAVEN MARINABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WEST MARINE # 5540 VINEYARD HAVENBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TISBURY SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- R M PACKER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TISBURY WHARFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LINEAWEAVER CABINETRY INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vineyard Haven'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 Vineyard Haven.
Total Sites
821
within ~10 miles of Vineyard Haven
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vineyard Haven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vineyard Haven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vineyard Haven, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 554 sites within ~10 miles of Vineyard Haven. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Vineyard Haven
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 Vineyard Haven average
Your land is one point inside Vineyard Haven
Everything above resolves to Vineyard Haven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 835 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 Vineyard Haven Average
Vineyard Haven Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Vineyard Haven
- ●One soil character for all of Vineyard Haven
- ●Frost dates read at Vineyard Haven's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vineyard Haven's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vineyard Haven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vineyard Haven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vineyard Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vineyard Haven average
How we know this about Vineyard Haven
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 Vineyard Haven’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 Vineyard Haven
When does frost risk typically end in Vineyard Haven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vineyard Haven typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Vineyard Haven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vineyard Haven typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vineyard Haven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vineyard Haven sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Nov 2, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vineyard Haven?
The federal record around Vineyard Haven is a meaningful one — 821 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (554), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Vineyard Haven?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vineyard Haven's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vineyard Haven'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 Vineyard Haven’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vineyard Haven's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 835 acres it covers and 821 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vineyard Haven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vineyard Haven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 16 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 821 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vineyard Haven, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vineyard Haven's boundary and the 835 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vineyard Haven's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Vineyard Havenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vineyard Haven's 835 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dukes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dukes 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 Dukes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vineyard Haven's 835 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vineyard Haven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 835 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Vineyard Haven-wide figureread your own land →
More in Massachusetts
Growing region
Nearby growing guides