Castleton Four Corners, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Castleton Four Corners, 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 Castleton Four Corners 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 Castleton Four Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Castleton Four Corners — the short answer
Castleton Four Corners, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Castleton Four Corners's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Castleton Four Corners's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Castleton Four Corners
Each reading below is measured for Castleton Four Corners itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCastleton Four Corners runs about 177 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
MeasuredCastleton Four Corners 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 Castleton Four Corners is in
Castleton Four Corners sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Castleton Four Corners's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rutland County.
What Grows in Castleton Four Corners
Every plant below cleared Castleton Four Corners's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Castleton Four Corners?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Castleton Four Corners
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Castleton Four Corners, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Castleton Four Corners
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Castleton Four Corners. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREEN MOUNTAIN MARKET #104Brownfields · 1000 ft
- KINNEY DRUGS #98Brownfields · 1200 ft
- Castleton Tenney BrookUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MIDWAY OIL CASTLETON SMART SHOPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- NEW ENGLAND TRUCK AND EQUIPMENT, LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- VT AGENCY OF TRANSP MAINTENANCE GARAGEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- HUBBARDTON FORGEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- EARTH WASTE SYSTEMS _ CASTLETONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Prunier's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- George & AnnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PRECISION AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #16871Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Castleton Four Corners'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 Castleton Four Corners.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Castleton Four Corners
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Castleton Four Corners
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Castleton Four Corners
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 Castleton Four Corners
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 Castleton Four Corners average
Your land is one point inside Castleton Four Corners
Everything above resolves to Castleton Four Corners as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Castleton Four Corners Average
Castleton Four Corners Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Castleton Four Corners
- ●One soil character for all of Castleton Four Corners
- ●Frost dates read at Castleton Four Corners's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Castleton Four Corners's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Castleton Four Corners
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Castleton Four Corners, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Castleton Four Corners averages can't show:
We read public map data around Castleton Four Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Castleton Four Corners average
How we know this about Castleton Four Corners
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 Castleton Four Corners’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 Castleton Four Corners
When does frost risk typically end in Castleton Four Corners?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Castleton Four Corners typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Castleton Four Corners?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Castleton Four Corners 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 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Castleton Four Corners?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Castleton Four Corners sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 5, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Castleton Four Corners?
The federal record around Castleton Four Corners is a meaningful one — 203 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Castleton Four Corners?
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 Castleton Four Corners's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Castleton Four Corners'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 Castleton Four Corners’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Castleton Four Corners's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,361 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Castleton Four Corners's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Castleton Four Corners's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 19 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Castleton Four Corners, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Castleton Four Corners's boundary and the 1,361 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Castleton Four Corners's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Castleton Four Cornerslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Castleton Four Corners's 1,361 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 Castleton Four Corners's 1,361 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Castleton Four Corners you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,361 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Castleton Four Corners-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontCastleton Four Corners sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides