Bristol, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, 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.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bristol — the short answer
Bristol, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- 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 Bristol's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bristol's 170-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 170 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
MeasuredBristol 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 Bristol is in
Bristol sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bristol's own centroid rather than borrowed from Addison County.
What Grows in Bristol
Every plant below cleared Bristol's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont 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 Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Bristol
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bristol checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. 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 TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 400 ft
- FIVE TOWN HEALTH ALLIANCEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- The A. Johnson Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Mt Abraham Union High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- INTERACTIVE ARTSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- R L VALLEE BRISTOL VLG MOBILBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Short Stop Bristol/Thad AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Bristol Vintage MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Maplefields at BristolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ALLEARTH RENEWABLESBrownfields · 2500 ft
- ST. AMBROSE CATHOLIC CHURCHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BRISTOL PARK DENTAL - BRISTOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
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.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bristol
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
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 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 Bristol Average
Bristol Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bristol
- ●One soil character for all of Bristol
- ●Frost dates read at Bristol's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bristol's 5a
- ✓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, Vermont — 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 town’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 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 Bristol
When does frost risk typically end in Bristol?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Bristol?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bristol?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bristol sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 2, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bristol?
The federal record around Bristol shows 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bristol?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bristol's scale — its 5a band and its 170-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 ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,527 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bristol's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bristol's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 16 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bristol, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bristol's boundary and the 1,527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bristol's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bristol 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 Bristol's 1,527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Addison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Addison 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 Addison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bristol's 1,527 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 1,527 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Vermont
Growing region
Nearby growing guides