Orange County, in Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Orange County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Orange 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 Orange County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Orange County — the short answer
Orange County, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 440K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 440K 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 Orange County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orange County's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Orange County
Across a year, Orange County accumulates about 1,408 growing degree days above 50°F, about 365 fewer than the middle Vermont county — ahead of 1 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 Orange County
Across Orange County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Buckland, Colrain, and Tunbridge are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
14%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Orange County
The USDA soil survey maps 57% of Orange County as well drained — but another 42% drains differently: 20% moderately well drained, 12% poorly drained.
Buckland is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Colrain (17%) and Tunbridge (15%).
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 Orange County
Each reading below is measured for Orange 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 Orange 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 Orange County runs about pH 5.3–6.2, 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
MeasuredOrange County runs about 159 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
MeasuredOrange 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 Orange County is in
Orange 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 Orange County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Orange County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 159-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 Orange County?
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 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Orange County
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Orange County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle11 documented records
- monarch butterfly160 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Orange County
USGS estimates 2,644 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Orange County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,633 lb) and Atrazine (2,091 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 Orange County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Orange County — 396 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Orange 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 Orange County
Closest first, across Orange County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VERSHIRE FIRE & RESCUEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WARDS GARAGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Ward's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Mountain School of MiltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Frank Easton FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- VERSHIRE TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- TOWN OF CHELSEA TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Unnamed Copper ProspectMining · 3.6 mi
- Cookville MineMining · 3.9 mi
- Vermont 110 Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Button's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Campbell's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orange 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 Orange County.
Sources Checked
across Orange County
Severity Distribution
across Orange County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orange County, two things run higher than the national average across Orange County — Mining (32 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Orange 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 Orange County average
Your land is one point inside Orange County
Everything above resolves to Orange County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 440K 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 Orange County Average
Orange County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Orange County
- ●One soil character for all of Orange County
- ●Frost dates read at Orange County's scale: May 5 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orange County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Orange County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orange County, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orange County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orange County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orange County average
How we know this about Orange 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 Orange County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Orange County
When does frost risk typically end in Orange County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orange County 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.
How long is the growing season in Orange County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orange County sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 27, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orange County?
The federal record around Orange County runs heavier than most — 396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (180), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Orange County's scale — its 5a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orange 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 Orange County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Orange County's own scale — its own ~159-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 396 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orange County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orange County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Orange CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 396 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Orange County's boundary and the 439,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Orange County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Orange County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Orange 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 Orange County — the ~159 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 Orange County's 439,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 396 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 Orange Countyread your own land →