Williamstown, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in The Berkshires
Western Massachusetts' cool, hilly uplands — rocky glacial soils, cold winters, and the state's shortest season. Apples, maples, and cold-hardy market gardens are the crops that have always made sense on this high ground.
Even in Williamstown, 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 Williamstown 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 Williamstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Williamstown — the short answer
Williamstown, Massachusetts: USDA zone 5b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- 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 5b is Williamstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Williamstown's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Williamstown
Each reading below is measured for Williamstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilliamstown runs about 175 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
MeasuredWilliamstown sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Williamstown is in
Williamstown sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Williamstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berkshire County.
What Grows in Williamstown
Every plant below cleared Williamstown's own zone 5b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Williamstown?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Williamstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Williamstown, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Williamstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Williamstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WILLIAMS COLLEGE (SERVICE BUILDING)Brownfields · 300 ft
- WILLIAMS COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WILLIAMSTOWN DPW GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WILLIAMSTOWN HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 350 ft
- GENERAL CABLE COToxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- B & L SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BERKSHIRE APOTHECARY INCSBrownfields · 950 ft
- MA-XLW 34Nitrate · 950 ft
- LAWRENCE HALL WILLIAMS COLLEGEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- WILLIAMS COLLEGE BRONFMAN SCIENCE CENTERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- GARDNER CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Williamstown'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 Williamstown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Williamstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Williamstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Williamstown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Williamstown — Superfund (9 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Williamstown
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 Williamstown average
Your land is one point inside Williamstown
Everything above resolves to Williamstown 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 Williamstown Average
Williamstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Williamstown
- ●One soil character for all of Williamstown
- ●Frost dates read at Williamstown's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Williamstown's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Williamstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Williamstown, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Williamstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Williamstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Williamstown average
How we know this about Williamstown
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 Williamstown’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 Williamstown
When does frost risk typically end in Williamstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Williamstown typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Williamstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Williamstown typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Williamstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Williamstown sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 5, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Williamstown?
The federal record around Williamstown is a meaningful one — 345 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (134), 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 Williamstown?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Williamstown's scale — its 5b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Williamstown'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 Williamstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Williamstown's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,175 acres it covers and 345 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Williamstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Williamstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 19 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 345 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Williamstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Williamstown's boundary and the 2,175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Williamstown's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Williamstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Williamstown's 2,175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berkshire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berkshire 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 Berkshire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Williamstown's 2,175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Williamstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,175 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 Williamstown-wide figureread your own land →
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