The Champlain Valley spans USDA hardiness zones 4a-5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The lake-tempered lowland on both shores of Lake Champlain — clay and silt plains that make the warmest, driest, and most productive farm ground in Vermont, with apple and cold-climate wine country on the New York shore. These conditions suit garlic, kale, tomato, and rhubarb — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Your yard isn't all of the Champlain Valley.
The Champlain Valley spans USDA zones 4a-5a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Champlain Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Champlain Valley — the short answer
The Champlain Valley: USDA zones 4a-5a, 143–190 frost-free days depending where in it you stand, across 2 states.
- USDA zones
- 4a-5a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Shortest season here
- 143 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020 — Essex County
- Counties
- 6
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. The season figure is this region's own record, measured across its 6 member counties, not a state or national average.
Hardiness Zone Range
The Champlain Valley is not one growing season
One answer for the Champlain Valley averages 6 counties whose growing seasons are 47 days apart — from 143 frost-free days in Essex County to 190 in Grand Isle County. That is the same region, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your land sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 6 counties runs 171–177 days, with a median of 174 days — a 47-day span end to end.
Measured across 6 member counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020. A member with no own record is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the region. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
Where the line runs inside the Champlain Valley
The middle half of the Champlain Valley runs 171–177 frost-free days, and 4 of its 6 counties sit outside that — 2 on the short side, 2 on the long. A regional planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 171 frost-free days
2 counties
- Essex County · 143 days
- Clinton County · 170 days
The end of the region that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
171–177 frost-free days
2 counties
0 of 2 shown
The middle half of the region, and the part a single regional season describes well.
Over 177 frost-free days
2 counties
- Grand Isle County · 190 days
- Chittenden County · 178 days
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its OWN 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a site within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
What Grows in the Champlain Valley
All 2 of the plants below that publish a season requirement clear even Essex County’s 143 frost-free days — so on season alone, this grid works at both ends of the region. The 47-day spread still decides how far past this list you can push, and how early you can start.
Plants matched to the Champlain Valley's USDA zones 4a-5a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Champlain Valley
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in all 2 states this region crosses, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Champlain Valley’s USDA zones 4a-5a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Champlain Valley
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across six member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Spodosols, at 57% of mapped acres, followed by Inceptisols (21%), Alfisols (10%) and Entisols (7%). Six soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Becket, Lyman, and Vergennes.
36% of those acres are well drained, and another 18% moderately well drained, 12% somewhat excessively drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.2–6.7 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 5% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
4.2–6.7
Hydric soils
14%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Grand Isle County holds the most wetland ground here, at 41% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Champlain Valley
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Champlain Valley. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records36% of the mapped acres across the Champlain Valley are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all six of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Champlain Valley runs pH 4.2–6.7 — acidic in five of its six counties.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Champlain Valley — and how to grow with it.
Across the Champlain Valley's 6 counties the federal record holds 3,444 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (1,719), Brownfields (1,324) and Nitrate (232). The heaviest single county is Chittenden County, with 1,312.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Champlain Valley to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 6 counties in the Champlain Valley
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Champlain Valley, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 39 sites across the 6 counties in the Champlain Valley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Champlain Valley
Everything above resolves to the Champlain Valley as a whole — a footprint whose own counties record seasons 47 days apart, and hardiness across zones 4a-5a. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Champlain Valley Average
Champlain Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a-5a, averaged across Champlain Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Champlain Valley
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Champlain Valley's 4a-5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Champlain Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Champlain Valley — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Champlain Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Champlain Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Champlain Valley average
How we know this about the Champlain Valley
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Champlain Valley
What hardiness zone is the Champlain Valley?
The Champlain Valley spans USDA hardiness zones 4a-5a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Champlain Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Champlain Valley's counties mostly run 171 to 177 frost-free days, median 174 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 6 member counties). That 6-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 6 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Champlain Valley?
Across the Champlain Valley, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Apr 26 and Apr 28 (median Apr 27), and their first fall freeze between Oct 16 and Oct 20. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about May 18, and elevation decides which end of a 2-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Champlain Valley?
The Champlain Valley's conditions suit plants such as Garlic, Kale, Tomato, Rhubarb, Apple, Sugar Maple. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Champlain Valley defined?
The Champlain Valley is defined here as a curated cluster of 6 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Champlain Valley cover?
The Champlain Valley spans New York and Vermont. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley, Mohawk Valley, The Adirondacks, and New York City metro share at least one state with the Champlain Valley. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Champlain Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Champlain Valley's own scale — the zone 4a-5a band across its footprint, a median 174-day season across its 6 counties and 3,444 documented federal contamination records across its 6 counties, 1,312 of them in Chittenden County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 4a-5a aggregated across all 6 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 6 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 6 counties run 171 to 177 frost-free days, median 174NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 3,444 documented federal contamination records across its 6 counties, 1,312 of them in Chittenden County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 57% Spodosols, topsoil pH 4.2–6.7, area-weighted across its 6 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — all 2 member states' curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 4a-5afrom New York and Vermont
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 6-day range your ground sits at — 171 days at one extreme, 177 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Champlain Valley
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across New York and Vermont
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
Deep glacial lakes moderate New York's premier cool-climate wine region, where lake-effect slopes favour grapes, apples, and other tree fruit.
The Hudson River corridor's fertile valley floors and benched hillsides have grown orchards, vineyards, and market vegetables since the colonial era.
New York's east–west Mohawk River corridor, where cold 4a highland gives way to milder 5b valley-floor farmland across a roughly 168-day median frost-free season (last frost near the end of April, first frost around mid-October).
New York's vast northern mountain wilderness — very cold winters, thin acidic soils, and the state's shortest growing seasons.
The warmest, longest-season corner of New York State: every one of the five boroughs sits in USDA zone 7b with roughly 254-258 frost-free days (per the PHZM zone join and NOAA frost normals in our county data) — the urban heat island stretching the season well past the cooler zones inland and upstate. But the real difference isn't the calendar, it's the ground: growing here means rooftops, balcony containers, small raised beds, and community-garden plots on reclaimed lots — not open field. That flips the constraints a Brooklyn or Queens grower actually faces (reflected heat, rooftop wind, deep shade between buildings, and legacy-lot soil worth testing before you plant) toward what thrives in containers and tight urban beds, rather than the acreage advice the rest of the state gets.