Beecher Falls, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Beecher Falls, 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 Beecher Falls 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 Beecher Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beecher Falls — the short answer
Beecher Falls, Vermont: USDA zone 4a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 811 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 811 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 4a is Beecher Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beecher Falls's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beecher Falls
Each reading below is measured for Beecher Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeecher Falls runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBeecher Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Beecher Falls is in
Beecher Falls sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Beecher Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Beecher Falls
Every plant below cleared Beecher Falls's own zone 4a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beecher Falls?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Beecher Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beecher Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ETHAN ALLEN OPERATIONSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ETHAN ALLEN OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- Ethan Allen-Beecher FallsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BRUCE'S TIRE & GASBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Quechee FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GREEN MOUNTAIN LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NH-CSW 14Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- LAFLAMME TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SPA RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- NH-SOW 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- CUSTOM & COLLISION BODY WORKSBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- NH-CSW 13Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beecher Falls'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 Beecher Falls.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Beecher Falls
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beecher Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beecher Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beecher Falls, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Beecher Falls. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Beecher Falls
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 Beecher Falls average
Your land is one point inside Beecher Falls
Everything above resolves to Beecher Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 811 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 Beecher Falls Average
Beecher Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Beecher Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Beecher Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Beecher Falls's scale: May 10 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beecher Falls's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beecher Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beecher Falls, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beecher Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beecher Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beecher Falls average
How we know this about Beecher Falls
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 Beecher Falls’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 Beecher Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Beecher Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beecher Falls typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Beecher Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beecher Falls typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beecher Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beecher Falls sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 22, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beecher Falls?
The federal record around Beecher Falls shows 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Beecher Falls?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Beecher Falls rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Beecher Falls's scale — its 4a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beecher Falls'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 Beecher Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beecher Falls's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 811 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beecher Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beecher Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 6 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beecher Falls, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beecher Falls's boundary and the 811 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beecher Falls's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beecher Falls's 811 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beecher Falls's 811 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beecher Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 811 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Beecher Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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