Cabot, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cabot, 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 Cabot 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 Cabot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cabot — the short answer
Cabot, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 796 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 796 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 Cabot's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cabot's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cabot
Each reading below is measured for Cabot itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCabot runs about 158 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
MeasuredCabot 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 Cabot is in
Cabot sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Cabot's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Cabot
Every plant below cleared Cabot's own zone 4b and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cabot?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Cabot
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cabot checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 50 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cabot
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cabot. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Harry's HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Heath PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CABOT SCHOOLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CABOT CREAMERY CO-OPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CABOT CREAMERY CO-OPToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- Cabot GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Cabot Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Cabot CreameryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LAND APPLICATION TO FARM FIELDSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- CABOT RECYCLING CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Derek's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Cabot Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cabot'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 Cabot.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Cabot
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cabot
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cabot
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 Cabot
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 Cabot average
Your land is one point inside Cabot
Everything above resolves to Cabot as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 796 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 Cabot Average
Cabot Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cabot
- ●One soil character for all of Cabot
- ●Frost dates read at Cabot's scale: May 5 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cabot's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cabot
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cabot, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cabot averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cabot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cabot average
How we know this about Cabot
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 Cabot’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 Cabot
When does frost risk typically end in Cabot?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cabot typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Cabot?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cabot typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cabot?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cabot sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 26, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cabot?
The federal record around Cabot shows 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Cabot?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cabot's scale — its 4b band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cabot'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 Cabot’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cabot's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 796 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cabot's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cabot's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 10 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cabot, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cabot's boundary and the 796 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cabot's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cabot 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 Cabot's 796 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cabot's 796 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cabot you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 796 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Cabot-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontCabot sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides