Whitinsville, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
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 Whitinsville, 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 Whitinsville 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 Whitinsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Whitinsville — the short answer
Whitinsville, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~200
- 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 6b is Whitinsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitinsville's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whitinsville
Each reading below is measured for Whitinsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhitinsville runs about 200 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
MeasuredWhitinsville 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 Whitinsville is in
Whitinsville sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Whitinsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Whitinsville
Every plant below cleared Whitinsville's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whitinsville?
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 Oct 26 — 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 Whitinsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Whitinsville, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Whitinsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whitinsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORGANIZATIONAL MAINT SHOP #9Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MA ARMY NATIONAL GUARDBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NORTHBRIDGE WATER DIVISIONPFAS · 2300 ft
- TOWN OF NORTHBRIDGE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HATHAWAY MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CORE MARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RYDER TRUCK RENTAL INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- COVITCH PROPERTY/ATF DAVIDSON (FMR)Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- COVITCH PROPERTY/ATF DAVIDSON CO (FMR)Superfund · 0.6 mi
- TOWN HALLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- OMNI CONTROL TECHNOLOGY INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ELITE WOODWORK AND DESIGN INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitinsville'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 Whitinsville.
Total Sites
1,191
within ~10 miles of Whitinsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whitinsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whitinsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitinsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Whitinsville — Brownfields (713 sites) and PFAS (12 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Whitinsville
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 Whitinsville average
Your land is one point inside Whitinsville
Everything above resolves to Whitinsville 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 Whitinsville Average
Whitinsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Whitinsville
- ●One soil character for all of Whitinsville
- ●Frost dates read at Whitinsville's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitinsville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whitinsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitinsville, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitinsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitinsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitinsville average
How we know this about Whitinsville
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 Whitinsville’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 Whitinsville
When does frost risk typically end in Whitinsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitinsville 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 Whitinsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whitinsville 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whitinsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitinsville sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 12, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitinsville?
The federal record around Whitinsville is a meaningful one — 1,191 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (713), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Whitinsville?
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 Whitinsville's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitinsville'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 Whitinsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Whitinsville's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,331 acres it covers and 1,191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitinsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitinsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 26 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whitinsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whitinsville's boundary and the 2,331 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Whitinsville's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Whitinsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Whitinsville's 2,331 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 Whitinsville's 2,331 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whitinsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,331 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Whitinsville-wide figureread your own land →
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