Winchendon, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own 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 Winchendon, 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 Winchendon 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 Winchendon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Winchendon — the short answer
Winchendon, Massachusetts: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Winchendon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winchendon's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winchendon
Each reading below is measured for Winchendon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinchendon runs about 168 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
MeasuredWinchendon 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 Winchendon is in
Winchendon sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Winchendon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Worcester County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Winchendon
Every plant below cleared Winchendon's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winchendon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Winchendon
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Winchendon, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Winchendon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winchendon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAXTER WHITNEY FOUNDRY (FORMER)Superfund · 800 ft
- MIKES MARTBrownfields · 800 ft
- GREIGE RELTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Winchendon Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LACOSS & MERCIER REALTYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- WINCHENDON TOWN OFBrownfields · 1200 ft
- TOWN OF WINCHENDONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WENDELL P CLARK MEMORIAL YMCABrownfields · 1700 ft
- OLD COLONY #6930Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #2083Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BROOKS AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winchendon'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 Winchendon.
Total Sites
393
within ~10 miles of Winchendon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winchendon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winchendon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winchendon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winchendon — Superfund (11 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Winchendon
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 Winchendon average
Your land is one point inside Winchendon
Everything above resolves to Winchendon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Winchendon Average
Winchendon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Winchendon
- ●One soil character for all of Winchendon
- ●Frost dates read at Winchendon's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winchendon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winchendon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winchendon, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winchendon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winchendon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winchendon average
How we know this about Winchendon
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 Winchendon’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 Winchendon
When does frost risk typically end in Winchendon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winchendon typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Winchendon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winchendon typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winchendon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winchendon sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 30, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winchendon?
The federal record around Winchendon is a meaningful one — 393 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (210), the nearest Superfund 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 Winchendon?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winchendon's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winchendon'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 Winchendon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Winchendon's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,450 acres it covers and 393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winchendon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winchendon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 14 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winchendon, the closest Superfund record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winchendon's boundary and the 1,450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Winchendon sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Winchendonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winchendon's 1,450 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 Winchendon's 1,450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winchendon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,450 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Winchendon-wide figureread your own land →
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