Bantam, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bantam, 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 Bantam 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 Bantam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bantam — the short answer
Bantam, Connecticut: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 646 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 646 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 Bantam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bantam's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bantam
Each reading below is measured for Bantam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBantam runs about 187 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
MeasuredBantam 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 Bantam is in
Bantam sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bantam's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northwest Hills Planning Region.
What Grows in Bantam
Every plant below cleared Bantam's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bantam?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Bantam
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Bantam, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bantam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bantam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONN SWITCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CT-LF 20Nitrate · 1500 ft
- RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FORMER BANTAM GREENHOUSE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BANTAM SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BANTAM BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CT-LF 62Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 615 BANTAM RDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BANTAM RIVER CORPORATE PARKToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- BANTAM RIVER CORPORATE PARKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- E.O. PHELPS & SONS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Buck DepositMining · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bantam'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 Bantam.
Total Sites
557
within ~10 miles of Bantam
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bantam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bantam
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Bantam
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 Bantam average
Your land is one point inside Bantam
Everything above resolves to Bantam as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 646 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 Bantam Average
Bantam Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bantam
- ●One soil character for all of Bantam
- ●Frost dates read at Bantam's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bantam's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bantam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bantam, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bantam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bantam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bantam average
How we know this about Bantam
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 Bantam’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 Bantam
When does frost risk typically end in Bantam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bantam typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Bantam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bantam typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bantam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bantam sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 9, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bantam?
The federal record around Bantam is a meaningful one — 557 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (312), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bantam?
From about Sep 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 Oct 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bantam's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bantam'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 Bantam’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bantam's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 646 acres it covers and 557 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bantam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bantam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 23 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 557 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bantam, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bantam's boundary and the 646 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bantam's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bantamlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bantam's 646 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northwest Hills County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northwest Hills County
- The growing challenges every Connecticut grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Connecticut
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Northwest Hills County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bantam's 646 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bantam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 646 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 Bantam-wide figureread your own land →