Bigelow Corners, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bigelow Corners, 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 Bigelow Corners 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 Bigelow Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bigelow Corners — the short answer
Bigelow Corners, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 429 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 429 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 Bigelow Corners's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bigelow Corners's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bigelow Corners
Each reading below is measured for Bigelow Corners itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBigelow Corners runs about 200 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
MeasuredBigelow Corners 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 Bigelow Corners is in
Bigelow Corners sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bigelow Corners's own centroid rather than borrowed from Western Connecticut Planning Region.
What Grows in Bigelow Corners
Every plant below cleared Bigelow Corners's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bigelow Corners?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bigelow Corners
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Bigelow Corners, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bigelow Corners
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bigelow Corners. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEETING HOUSE HILL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SQUANTZ POND STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RICHARD T. JOHNSON, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NEW FAIRFIELD POLICE/FUEL DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WARWICK BROS.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LESTER E. HAVENS - BUILDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHATTERTON MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- The Marina at Cottonwood CoveUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DUNHAM TOOL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PETER WARWICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GIL'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- NEW FAIRFIELD S/CUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bigelow Corners'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 Bigelow Corners.
Total Sites
1,184
within ~10 miles of Bigelow Corners
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bigelow Corners
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bigelow Corners
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bigelow Corners, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Bigelow Corners. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bigelow Corners
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 Bigelow Corners average
Your land is one point inside Bigelow Corners
Everything above resolves to Bigelow Corners as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 429 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 Bigelow Corners Average
Bigelow Corners Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bigelow Corners
- ●One soil character for all of Bigelow Corners
- ●Frost dates read at Bigelow Corners's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bigelow Corners's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bigelow Corners
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bigelow Corners, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bigelow Corners averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bigelow Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bigelow Corners average
How we know this about Bigelow Corners
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 Bigelow Corners’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 Bigelow Corners
When does frost risk typically end in Bigelow Corners?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bigelow Corners typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bigelow Corners?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bigelow Corners typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bigelow Corners?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bigelow Corners sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 17, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bigelow Corners?
The federal record around Bigelow Corners is a meaningful one — 1,184 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (580), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bigelow Corners?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bigelow Corners's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bigelow Corners'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 Bigelow Corners’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bigelow Corners's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 429 acres it covers and 1,184 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bigelow Corners's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bigelow Corners's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 31 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bigelow Corners, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bigelow Corners's boundary and the 429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bigelow Corners's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bigelow Cornerslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bigelow Corners's 429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Western Connecticut County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Western Connecticut 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 Western Connecticut County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bigelow Corners's 429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bigelow Corners you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bigelow Corners-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutBigelow Corners sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides