Bristol, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bristol, 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 Bristol 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 Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bristol — the short answer
Bristol, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 17K 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 Bristol's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bristol's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bristol
Each reading below is measured for Bristol itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBristol runs about 202 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
MeasuredBristol 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 Bristol is in
Bristol sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bristol's own centroid rather than borrowed from Naugatuck Valley Planning Region.
What Grows in Bristol
Every plant below cleared Bristol's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bristol?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Bristol
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Bristol, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bristol
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bristol. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRISTOL WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 25 ft
- MOBIL OIL CORP SERV STA QVHBrownfields · 500 ft
- HESS 07501Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- AAMCO TRANSMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PRICE CHOPPER INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BEST CLEANERSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #1276Brownfields · 1500 ft
- JIFFY LUBEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MASTROBATTISTO, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CASTLE & SONS INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- LEWIS STREET AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MAL MACHINERY SALES INC.Brownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bristol'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 Bristol.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bristol, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bristol — Superfund (53 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (201 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 Bristol
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 Bristol average
Your land is one point inside Bristol
Everything above resolves to Bristol as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Bristol Average
Bristol Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bristol
- ●One soil character for all of Bristol
- ●Frost dates read at Bristol's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bristol's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bristol
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bristol, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bristol averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bristol average
How we know this about Bristol
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 Bristol’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 Bristol
When does frost risk typically end in Bristol?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Bristol?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bristol?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bristol sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 16, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bristol?
The federal record around Bristol runs heavier than most — 2,056 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (880), the nearest PFAS 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 Bristol?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bristol's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bristol'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 Bristol’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bristol's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,895 acres it covers and 2,056 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bristol's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bristol's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 30 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,056 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bristol, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bristol's boundary and the 16,895 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bristol's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bristollydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bristol's 16,895 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Naugatuck Valley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Naugatuck Valley 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 Naugatuck Valley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bristol's 16,895 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bristol you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,895 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Bristol-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutBristol sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides