Bennington County, in 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bennington County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bennington County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bennington County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bennington County — the short answer
Bennington County, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 432K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 432K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Bennington County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bennington County's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Bennington County
Across a year, Bennington County accumulates about 1,800 growing degree days above 50°F, about 27 more than the middle Vermont county — ahead of 7 of Vermont’s 14 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bennington County
Across Bennington County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Houghtonville, Mundal, and Rawsonville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bennington County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of Bennington County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 22% moderately well drained, 4% poorly drained.
Houghtonville is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Mundal (10%) and Rawsonville (10%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bennington County
Each reading below is measured for Bennington County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bennington County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bennington County runs about pH 4.8–5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBennington County runs about 160 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
MeasuredBennington County 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 Bennington County is in
Bennington County sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Bennington County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bennington County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 160-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bennington County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Bennington County
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Bennington County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly410 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Bennington County
USGS estimates 1,068 lb of Glyphosate on Bennington County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,020 lb) and Atrazine (811 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bennington County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bennington County — 424 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Bennington County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bennington County
Closest first, across Bennington County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sunderland Net Co.'s GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CONSOLIDATED COMMUNICATIONS SUNDERLANDBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GMP SUNDERLAND DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- GMP SUNDERLAND SVC CTRBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HBH Prestain Corp/Hale Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Moosehollow IGA (formr Super IGA)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Hosley ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MACK MOLDING COMPANYBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Mack Molding CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ARLINGTON INDUSTRIES, INC. DBA QUADRA TEKBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Former Pizza ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Arlington Town Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bennington County'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 Bennington County.
Sources Checked
across Bennington County
Severity Distribution
across Bennington County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bennington County, two things run higher than the national average across Bennington County — Superfund (12 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Bennington County
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 Bennington County average
Your land is one point inside Bennington County
Everything above resolves to Bennington County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 432K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bennington County Average
Bennington County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bennington County
- ●One soil character for all of Bennington County
- ●Frost dates read at Bennington County's scale: May 4 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bennington County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bennington County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bennington County, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bennington County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bennington County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bennington County average
How we know this about Bennington County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bennington County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bennington County
When does frost risk typically end in Bennington County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bennington County typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Bennington County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bennington County sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 27, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bennington County?
The federal record around Bennington County runs heavier than most — 424 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (219), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Bennington County's scale — its 5a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bennington County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Vermont's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bennington County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Bennington County's own scale — its own ~160-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 424 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bennington County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bennington County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bennington CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 424 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bennington County's boundary and the 431,511 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bennington County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bennington County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bennington County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Vermont grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Vermont
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bennington County — the ~160 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bennington County's 431,511 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 424 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bennington Countyread your own land →