Orleans County, in Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Orleans County lies within the Northeast Kingdom — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Orleans County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Orleans 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 Orleans County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Orleans County — the short answer
Orleans County, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 445K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 445K 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 4b is Orleans County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orleans County's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Orleans County
Across a year, Orleans County accumulates about 1,638 growing degree days above 50°F, about 135 fewer than the middle Vermont county — ahead of 3 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 Orleans County
Across Orleans County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Cabot, Peru, 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 4.8–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
31%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Orleans County
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Orleans County as well drained — but another 59% drains differently: 24% poorly drained, 19% moderately well drained.
Cabot is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Peru (12%) and Tunbridge (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 Orleans County
Each reading below is measured for Orleans 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 Orleans County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Orleans County runs about pH 4.8–5.6, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 31% of Orleans County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredOrleans County runs about 156 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
The kind of country Orleans County is in
Orleans 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 Orleans County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Orleans County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 156-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 Orleans 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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (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. 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 Orleans County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Orleans County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle4 documented records
- monarch butterfly76 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Orleans County
USGS estimates 8,076 lb of Glyphosate on Orleans County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (7,972 lb) and Atrazine (6,470 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 Orleans County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Orleans County — 363 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Orleans County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Orleans County
Closest first, across Orleans County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Frechette Farm, OrleansUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BLANCHARD OIL COMPANY INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Croteau Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CROTEAU AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Fred & Pat's Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Northeast Farm ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- B & B TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- B & B TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Westmore General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- J HUTCHINS INC DBA NE SAND AND GRAVELBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- VTrans Irasburg GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- VTRANS-IRASBURGHBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orleans 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 Orleans County.
Total Sites
363
across Orleans County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Orleans County
Severity Distribution
across Orleans County
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 Orleans 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 Orleans County average
Your land is one point inside Orleans County
Everything above resolves to Orleans County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 445K 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 Orleans County Average
Orleans County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Orleans County
- ●One soil character for all of Orleans County
- ●Frost dates read at Orleans County's scale: May 7 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orleans County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Orleans County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orleans County, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orleans County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orleans County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orleans County average
How we know this about Orleans 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 Orleans County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Orleans County
When does frost risk typically end in Orleans County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orleans County typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Orleans County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orleans County sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 26, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orleans County?
The federal record around Orleans County is a meaningful one — 363 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (192), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Orleans County's scale — its 4b band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orleans 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 Orleans County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Orleans County's own scale — its own ~156-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 363 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orleans County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orleans County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Orleans CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 363 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Orleans County's boundary and the 444,513 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Orleans County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Orleans County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Orleans 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 Orleans County — the ~156 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 Orleans County's 444,513 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 363 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 Orleans Countyread your own land →