Woods Hole, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
You’re in Cape Cod & the Islands
A sandy, sea-wrapped peninsula and islands with the state's warmest, longest season — and its most maritime one. Acidic soils long worked for cranberries and beach plums; wind and salt are the constant neighbors of every garden.
Even in Woods Hole, 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 Woods Hole 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 Woods Hole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woods Hole — the short answer
Woods Hole, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- 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 7a is Woods Hole's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woods Hole's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woods Hole
Each reading below is measured for Woods Hole itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoods Hole runs about 241 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
MeasuredWoods Hole sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Woods Hole is in
Woods Hole sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woods Hole's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnstable County.
What Grows in Woods Hole
Every plant below cleared Woods Hole's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woods Hole?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Woods Hole
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Woods Hole, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woods Hole
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woods Hole. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- WOODS HOLE PAINTING AND DELEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- WOODS HOLE MARINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MA-FSW 196Nitrate · 1900 ft
- WOODS HOLE GOLF CLUBBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION DOCKBrownfields · 2100 ft
- WOODS HOLE STEAMSHIP AUTHORITYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- ATLANTIC ELEVATOR SOUTHBrownfields · 2200 ft
- USDOC NOAA FISHERIES NEFSC WOODS HOLE LABBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NAUSHON TRUST INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woods Hole'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 Woods Hole.
Total Sites
2,702
within ~10 miles of Woods Hole
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woods Hole
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woods Hole
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woods Hole, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 2,414 sites within ~10 miles of Woods Hole. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Woods Hole
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 Woods Hole average
Your land is one point inside Woods Hole
Everything above resolves to Woods Hole 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 Woods Hole Average
Woods Hole Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Woods Hole
- ●One soil character for all of Woods Hole
- ●Frost dates read at Woods Hole's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woods Hole's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woods Hole
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woods Hole, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woods Hole averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woods Hole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woods Hole average
How we know this about Woods Hole
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 Woods Hole’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 Woods Hole
When does frost risk typically end in Woods Hole?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woods Hole typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Woods Hole?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woods Hole typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woods Hole?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woods Hole sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 8, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woods Hole?
The federal record around Woods Hole is a meaningful one — 2,702 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,414), the nearest Brownfields 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 Woods Hole?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woods Hole's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woods Hole'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 Woods Hole’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woods Hole's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,366 acres it covers and 2,702 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woods Hole's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woods Hole's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 22 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,702 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woods Hole, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woods Hole's boundary and the 1,366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woods Hole's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woods Holelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woods Hole's 1,366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barnstable County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barnstable 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 Barnstable County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woods Hole's 1,366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woods Hole you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Woods Hole-wide figureread your own land →