Chimney Hill, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chimney Hill, 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 Chimney Hill 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 Chimney Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chimney Hill — the short answer
Chimney Hill, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- 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 Chimney Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chimney Hill's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chimney Hill
Each reading below is measured for Chimney Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChimney Hill runs about 153 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
MeasuredChimney Hill 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 Chimney Hill is in
Chimney Hill sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Chimney Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Windham County.
What Grows in Chimney Hill
Every plant below cleared Chimney Hill's own zone 5a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chimney Hill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Chimney Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chimney Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chimney Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chimney Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Clubhouse and Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Green Mountain Power Corp.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VTrans Wilmington GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- G S PRECISION INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- RIVERSIDE AUTO OF WILMINGTON LLCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Nido's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VTRANS-WILMINGTONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- HIGH COUNTRYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Castle Hill WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Searsburg PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Lind Well DrillingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Covey ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chimney Hill'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 Chimney Hill.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Chimney Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chimney Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chimney Hill
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.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Chimney Hill
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 Chimney Hill average
Your land is one point inside Chimney Hill
Everything above resolves to Chimney Hill 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 Chimney Hill Average
Chimney Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Chimney Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Chimney Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Chimney Hill's scale: May 9 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chimney Hill's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chimney Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chimney Hill, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chimney Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chimney Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chimney Hill average
How we know this about Chimney Hill
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 Chimney Hill’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 Chimney Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Chimney Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chimney Hill typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Chimney Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chimney Hill typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chimney Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chimney Hill sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 25, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chimney Hill?
The federal record around Chimney Hill shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Chimney Hill?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chimney Hill's scale — its 5a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chimney Hill'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 Chimney Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chimney Hill's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,326 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chimney Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chimney Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 9 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chimney Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chimney Hill's boundary and the 1,326 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chimney Hill's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chimney Hill 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 Chimney Hill's 1,326 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Windham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Windham 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 Windham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chimney Hill's 1,326 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chimney Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,326 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Chimney Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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