Benson, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Benson, 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 Benson 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 Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Benson — the short answer
Benson, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5a is Benson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benson's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benson
Each reading below is measured for Benson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenson runs about 176 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
MeasuredBenson sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Benson is in
Benson sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Benson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Rutland County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Benson
Every plant below cleared Benson's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benson?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Benson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Benson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Benson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Benson Town Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BENSON TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Devil's Bowl SpeedwayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Merrill Transport CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Benson Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Benson Village StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Benson Fire and RescueUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- G & L GENERAL STORE STEWART'S UST #700Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- G & L General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Walker FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HHWC RCSWD BENSON TRF STABrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Castna ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benson'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 Benson.
Total Sites
117
within ~10 miles of Benson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benson
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Benson
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 Benson average
Your land is one point inside Benson
Everything above resolves to Benson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Benson Average
Benson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Benson
- ●One soil character for all of Benson
- ●Frost dates read at Benson's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benson's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benson, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benson average
How we know this about Benson
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 Benson’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 Benson
When does frost risk typically end in Benson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benson typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Benson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benson typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benson sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 5, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benson?
The federal record around Benson shows 117 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), 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 Benson?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benson's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benson'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 Benson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Benson's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,479 acres it covers and 117 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 19 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 117 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benson's boundary and the 2,479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Benson sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Benson 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 Benson's 2,479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rutland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rutland 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 Rutland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benson's 2,479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,479 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 Benson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontBenson sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides