Bakersfield, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bakersfield, 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 Bakersfield 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 Bakersfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bakersfield — the short answer
Bakersfield, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 666 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 666 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 4b is Bakersfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bakersfield's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bakersfield
Each reading below is measured for Bakersfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBakersfield runs about 168 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
MeasuredBakersfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Bakersfield is in
Bakersfield sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Bakersfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Bakersfield
Every plant below cleared Bakersfield's own zone 4b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bakersfield?
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 Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Bakersfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bakersfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 77 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bakersfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bakersfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Enosburg Redevelopment PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bakersfield JolleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- J & A Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Allen's Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- S B COLLINS INC PAULS QUICK STOPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Tillotson ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Maynard's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Enosburg Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Hulls Used CarUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Stone's ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- former Lyn's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- STONE'S TEXACO LLCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bakersfield'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 Bakersfield.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Bakersfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bakersfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bakersfield
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.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Bakersfield
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 Bakersfield average
Your land is one point inside Bakersfield
Everything above resolves to Bakersfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 666 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 Bakersfield Average
Bakersfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Bakersfield
- ●One soil character for all of Bakersfield
- ●Frost dates read at Bakersfield's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bakersfield's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bakersfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bakersfield, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bakersfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bakersfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bakersfield average
How we know this about Bakersfield
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 Bakersfield’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 Bakersfield
When does frost risk typically end in Bakersfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bakersfield typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Bakersfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bakersfield typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bakersfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bakersfield sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 1, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bakersfield?
The federal record around Bakersfield shows 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bakersfield?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bakersfield's scale — its 4b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bakersfield'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 Bakersfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bakersfield's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 666 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bakersfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bakersfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 15 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bakersfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bakersfield's boundary and the 666 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bakersfield's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bakersfield checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bakersfield's 666 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin County
- The growing challenges every Vermont grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Vermont
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bakersfield's 666 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bakersfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 666 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bakersfield-wide figureread your own land →
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