Wilmington, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
You’re in Greater Boston
The state's dense urban core, where growing means raised beds, community plots, and back-lot kitchen gardens more than open field. A long, mild season for the region — but city soil is the thing to know before you dig.
Even in Wilmington, 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 Wilmington 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 Wilmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilmington — the short answer
Wilmington, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Wilmington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilmington's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilmington
Each reading below is measured for Wilmington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilmington runs about 211 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
MeasuredWilmington 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 Wilmington is in
Wilmington sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wilmington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Middlesex County.
What Grows in Wilmington
Every plant below cleared Wilmington's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilmington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Wilmington
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Wilmington, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wilmington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilmington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILMINGTON WATER DEPTPFAS · 25 ft
- ECO SITE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- NOURIA 04204Brownfields · 1900 ft
- NOURIA #04204Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- R & V REALTY TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NORTHERN LIGHTS PAINTINGBrownfields · 2000 ft
- WILMINGTON MEMORIAL LIBRARYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- PINE RIDGE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- ETM MFGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- J E FARMER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WILMINGTON TOWN HALLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilmington'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 Wilmington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilmington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilmington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilmington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilmington — Brownfields (2,485 sites) and Superfund (55 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wilmington
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 Wilmington average
Your land is one point inside Wilmington
Everything above resolves to Wilmington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Wilmington Average
Wilmington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wilmington
- ●One soil character for all of Wilmington
- ●Frost dates read at Wilmington's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilmington's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilmington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilmington, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilmington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilmington average
How we know this about Wilmington
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 Wilmington’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 Wilmington
When does frost risk typically end in Wilmington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmington typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Wilmington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmington typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilmington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilmington sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilmington?
The federal record around Wilmington runs heavier than most — 3,818 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,485), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wilmington?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilmington's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilmington'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 Wilmington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wilmington's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,863 acres it covers and 3,818 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilmington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilmington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,818 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilmington, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilmington's boundary and the 10,863 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilmington's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wilmingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilmington's 10,863 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Middlesex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Middlesex 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 Middlesex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilmington's 10,863 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilmington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,863 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Wilmington-wide figureread your own land →
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