Warren, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
You’re in Central Massachusetts
The inland heart of the state — rolling upland, cooler nights, and a shorter season than the coast. Stony glacial soils that reward the gardener who feeds and drains them.
Even in Warren, 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 Warren 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 Warren — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Warren — the short answer
Warren, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 822 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 822 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 Warren's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warren's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warren
Each reading below is measured for Warren itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarren runs about 194 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWarren 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 Warren is in
Warren sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Warren's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Warren
Every plant below cleared Warren's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Warren?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Warren
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Warren, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Warren
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warren. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WARREN PUMPS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- WARREN PUMPS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- WARREN PUMPS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- QUABOAG REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- QUABOAG REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MARKS AUTO SALESBrownfields · 1700 ft
- WARREN LAUNDRYToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- WARREN LAUNDRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BILL'S CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHERMAN OIL CO INC DBA BILLS CITGOBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TOWN OF EAST LONGMEADOW DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FOUNTAIN & SONS FUEL CO INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warren'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 Warren.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warren
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warren
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warren, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Warren — Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites) and Brownfields (274 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Warren
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 Warren average
Your land is one point inside Warren
Everything above resolves to Warren as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 822 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 Warren Average
Warren Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Warren
- ●One soil character for all of Warren
- ●Frost dates read at Warren's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warren's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warren
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warren, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warren averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warren — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warren average
How we know this about Warren
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 Warren’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 Warren
When does frost risk typically end in Warren?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warren typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Warren?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warren typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warren?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warren sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warren?
The federal record around Warren is a meaningful one — 513 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (274), the nearest Brownfields 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 Warren?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Warren's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warren'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 Warren’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Warren's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 822 acres it covers and 513 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warren's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warren's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 26 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 513 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warren, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warren's boundary and the 822 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Warren's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Warrenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Warren's 822 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worcester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worcester 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 Worcester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warren's 822 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warren you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 822 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Warren-wide figureread your own land →