Worcester, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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.
Even in Worcester, 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 Worcester 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 Worcester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Worcester — the short answer
Worcester, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 24K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 24K 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 6a is Worcester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Worcester's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Worcester
Each reading below is measured for Worcester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWorcester runs about 201 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
MeasuredWorcester sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Worcester is in
Worcester sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Worcester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Worcester
Every plant below cleared Worcester's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Worcester?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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 Worcester
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Worcester, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Worcester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Worcester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELM PARK COMMUNITY SCHOOLBrownfields · 300 ft
- Global Montello Group #3825Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MARKS SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 700 ft
- GLOBAL - HIGHLAND ST WORCESTERBrownfields · 700 ft
- CHARLES GROSVENORUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- LEHIGH GAS CORP MA0059Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HARVARD HOUSEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CHESTNUT PLACEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- HAIMS INVESTMENT GROUP INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY 15 LANCASTER WORCESTER MABrownfields · 1200 ft
- WASHBURN SHOPS HEATING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VERIZON MASSACHUSETTS #861906Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Worcester'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 Worcester.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Worcester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Worcester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Worcester, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,347 sites within ~10 miles of Worcester. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Worcester
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 Worcester average
Your land is one point inside Worcester
Everything above resolves to Worcester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 24K 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 city 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 Worcester Average
Worcester Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Worcester
- ●One soil character for all of Worcester
- ●Frost dates read at Worcester's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Worcester's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Worcester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Worcester, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Worcester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Worcester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Worcester average
How we know this about Worcester
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Worcester’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Worcester
When does frost risk typically end in Worcester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Worcester typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Worcester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Worcester 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Worcester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Worcester sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 12, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Worcester?
The federal record around Worcester runs heavier than most — 2,149 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,347), the nearest Brownfields 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 Worcester?
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 Worcester's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Worcester'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 Worcester’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Worcester's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,910 acres it covers and 2,149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Worcester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Worcester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 26 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Worcester, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Worcester's boundary and the 23,910 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Worcester's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Worcesterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Worcester's 23,910 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 Worcester's 23,910 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Worcester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,910 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Worcester-wide figureread your own land →
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