Burlington, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burlington, 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 Burlington 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 Burlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burlington — the short answer
Burlington, Vermont: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 5b is Burlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burlington's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burlington
Each reading below is measured for Burlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurlington runs about 189 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
MeasuredBurlington sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Burlington is in
Burlington sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burlington's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chittenden County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Burlington
Every plant below cleared Burlington's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burlington?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Burlington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Burlington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Burlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North Beach Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BURLINGTON TECHNICAL CENTERBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Former Brigham CreameryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- RONS SHELLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Champlain Farms Shell 10-B1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Lakeview CemeteryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Packard LoftUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Yarwood ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP #661Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- ETHAN ALLEN AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Ethan Allen MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Former Auto Dealership (1920-1960)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burlington'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 Burlington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burlington, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 604 sites within ~10 miles of Burlington. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Burlington
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 Burlington average
Your land is one point inside Burlington
Everything above resolves to Burlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Burlington Average
Burlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Burlington
- ●One soil character for all of Burlington
- ●Frost dates read at Burlington's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burlington's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burlington, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burlington average
How we know this about Burlington
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Burlington’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Burlington
When does frost risk typically end in Burlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burlington typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Burlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burlington typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burlington sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 12, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burlington?
The federal record around Burlington is a meaningful one — 1,111 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (604), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Burlington?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burlington's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burlington'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 Burlington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Burlington's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,594 acres it covers and 1,111 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 26 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,111 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burlington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burlington's boundary and the 6,594 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Burlington sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Burlington 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 Burlington's 6,594 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chittenden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chittenden 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 Chittenden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burlington's 6,594 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,594 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 Burlington-wide figureread your own land →
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