Barnet, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Barnet, 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 Barnet 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 Barnet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnet — the short answer
Barnet, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 400 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 400 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 Barnet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnet's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnet
Each reading below is measured for Barnet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnet runs about 164 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
MeasuredBarnet 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 Barnet is in
Barnet sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Barnet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caledonia County.
What Grows in Barnet
Every plant below cleared Barnet's own zone 4b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnet?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Barnet
Survey cells within 31 miles of Barnet checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barnet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Morrison's Custom FeedsUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Comerford Power StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Passumpsic Village StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Webster's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Cummings ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- White's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MONROE HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Judd Jones ProspectMining · 1.8 mi
- N.E. POWER - MCINDOES FALLSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- MONROE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- McClaren's Tractors fmr Earth ConstrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Copper MineMining · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnet'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 Barnet.
Total Sites
271
within ~10 miles of Barnet
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnet, Mining runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Barnet. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Barnet
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 Barnet average
Your land is one point inside Barnet
Everything above resolves to Barnet as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 400 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 Barnet Average
Barnet Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Barnet
- ●One soil character for all of Barnet
- ●Frost dates read at Barnet's scale: May 2 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnet's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnet, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnet average
How we know this about Barnet
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 Barnet’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 Barnet
When does frost risk typically end in Barnet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnet typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Barnet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnet typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnet sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 29, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnet?
The federal record around Barnet is a meaningful one — 271 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), 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 Barnet?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnet's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnet'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 Barnet’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barnet's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 400 acres it covers and 271 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnet's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 13 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 271 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnet's boundary and the 400 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnet's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Barnet 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 Barnet's 400 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caledonia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caledonia 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 Caledonia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnet's 400 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 400 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 Barnet-wide figureread your own land →
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