Woonsocket, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woonsocket, 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 Woonsocket 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 Woonsocket — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woonsocket — the short answer
Woonsocket, Rhode Island: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Woonsocket's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woonsocket's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woonsocket
Each reading below is measured for Woonsocket itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoonsocket runs about 204 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
MeasuredWoonsocket 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 Woonsocket is in
Woonsocket sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woonsocket's own centroid rather than borrowed from Providence County.
What Grows in Woonsocket
Every plant below cleared Woonsocket's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woonsocket?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 29 — 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 Woonsocket
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Woonsocket, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woonsocket
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woonsocket. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAMLET REALTY TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- NORTHERN PRODUCTS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- CONSUMERS GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- RHODE ISLAND MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- ACS INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FDS INDUSTRIES (CAROL CABLE FACILITY)Toxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- RIVERSIDE SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CITY OF WOONSOCKET, D.P.W. HIGHWAY DIV.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SUNOCO STA/RICKS SUNOCOBrownfields · 1100 ft
- RICK'S SUNOCO #0005-9733Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BOB'S ONE-STOP CLEANSERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- WOONSOCKET REGIONAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woonsocket'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 Woonsocket.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woonsocket
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woonsocket
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woonsocket, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woonsocket — Superfund (45 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (142 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Woonsocket
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 Woonsocket average
Your land is one point inside Woonsocket
Everything above resolves to Woonsocket as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Woonsocket Average
Woonsocket Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Woonsocket
- ●One soil character for all of Woonsocket
- ●Frost dates read at Woonsocket's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woonsocket's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woonsocket
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woonsocket, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woonsocket averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woonsocket — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woonsocket average
How we know this about Woonsocket
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 Woonsocket’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 Woonsocket
When does frost risk typically end in Woonsocket?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woonsocket 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 Woonsocket?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woonsocket typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woonsocket?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woonsocket sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 15, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woonsocket?
The federal record around Woonsocket runs heavier than most — 1,980 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (932), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Woonsocket?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woonsocket's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woonsocket'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 Woonsocket’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woonsocket's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,957 acres it covers and 1,980 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woonsocket's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woonsocket's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 29 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,980 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woonsocket, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woonsocket's boundary and the 4,957 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woonsocket's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woonsocketlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woonsocket's 4,957 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Providence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Providence County
- The growing challenges every Rhode Island grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Rhode Island
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Providence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woonsocket's 4,957 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woonsocket you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,957 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 Woonsocket-wide figureread your own land →
More in Rhode Island
Wider growing context
What grows across Rhode IslandWoonsocket sits outside our named growing regions, so Rhode Island as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides