Windham County, in Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Windham County lies within the Southern Vermont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Windham County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Windham 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 Windham County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Windham County — the short answer
Windham County, Vermont: USDA zone 5b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 503K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 503K 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 5b is Windham County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Windham County's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Windham County
Across a year, Windham County accumulates about 1,746 growing degree days above 50°F, about 27 fewer than the middle Vermont county — ahead of 6 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 Windham County
Across Windham County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Houghtonville, Rawsonville, and Worden are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–4.8, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Windham County
The USDA soil survey maps 64% of Windham County as well drained — but another 35% drains differently: 11% moderately well drained, 10% somewhat poorly drained.
Houghtonville is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Rawsonville (11%) and Worden (9%).
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 Windham County
Each reading below is measured for Windham 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 Windham 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 Windham County runs about pH 4.6–4.8, 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
MeasuredWindham County runs about 161 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
MeasuredWindham County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Windham County is in
Windham 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 Windham County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Windham County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 161-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 Windham County?
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 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 12 — 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 Windham County
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Windham County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle32 documented records
- monarch butterfly246 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Windham County
USGS estimates 1,429 lb of Glyphosate on Windham County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,379 lb) and Atrazine (1,144 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 Windham County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Windham County — 583 documented sites across 7 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.
There's a meaningful federal record across Windham 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 Windham County
Closest first, across Windham County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Unnamed Chromite ProspectMining · 3.3 mi
- Dover-Newfane DepositMining · 3.3 mi
- Newfane Sanitary LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Falk PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Newfane Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Norman Brooks Custom Oil UndercoatgUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Former Nutique ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Former Cray OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- LOST MILE AUTOMOTIVE LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Wardsboro Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- County Seat MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Bischoffs Auto Sales/Harringtons GarUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Windham 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 Windham County.
Sources Checked
across Windham County
Severity Distribution
across Windham 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 Windham 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 Windham County average
Your land is one point inside Windham County
Everything above resolves to Windham County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 503K 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 Windham County Average
Windham County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Windham County
- ●One soil character for all of Windham County
- ●Frost dates read at Windham County's scale: May 4 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Windham County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Windham County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Windham County, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Windham County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Windham County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Windham County average
How we know this about Windham 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 Windham County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Windham County
When does frost risk typically end in Windham County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Windham 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 Windham County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Windham County sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 28, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Windham County?
The federal record around Windham County is a meaningful one — 583 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (329), the nearest Mining record about 3.3 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 Windham County's scale — its 5b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Windham 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 Windham County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Windham County's own scale — its own ~161-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 583 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Windham County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Windham County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Windham CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 583 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 3.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Windham County's boundary and the 503,013 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Windham County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Windham County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Windham 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 Windham County — the ~161 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 Windham County's 503,013 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 583 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 Windham Countyread your own land →