Derby Center, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Derby Center, 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 Derby Center 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 Derby Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Derby Center — the short answer
Derby Center, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 892 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 892 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 4b is Derby Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Derby Center's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Derby Center
Each reading below is measured for Derby Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDerby Center 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
MeasuredDerby Center sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Derby Center is in
Derby Center sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Derby Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orleans County.
What Grows in Derby Center
Every plant below cleared Derby Center's own zone 4b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Derby Center?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Derby Center
Survey cells within 31 miles of Derby Center checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 89 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Derby Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Derby Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HHWC NEKWMD DERBYBrownfields · 450 ft
- DERBY TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 450 ft
- Derby Jiffy Mart #54 SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Parenteau's ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- NELSON TIRE INC DBA GILLS POINT S TIREBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Derby Corner Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Former Albergini Hardware StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Border Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Fred's Energy/Derby PetrovendUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Carpet WorldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Thompsons' Redemption & ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BRANDON VANASSE, DMDBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Derby Center'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 Derby Center.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Derby Center
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Derby Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Derby Center
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 Derby Center
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 Derby Center average
Your land is one point inside Derby Center
Everything above resolves to Derby Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 892 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 Derby Center Average
Derby Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Derby Center
- ●One soil character for all of Derby Center
- ●Frost dates read at Derby Center's scale: May 3 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Derby Center's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Derby Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Derby Center, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Derby Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Derby Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Derby Center average
How we know this about Derby Center
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 Derby Center’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 Derby Center
When does frost risk typically end in Derby Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Derby Center typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Derby Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Derby Center typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Derby Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Derby Center sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 26, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Derby Center?
The federal record around Derby Center is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Derby Center?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Derby Center's scale — its 4b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Derby Center'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 Derby Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Derby Center's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 892 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Derby Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Derby Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 10 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Derby Center, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Derby Center's boundary and the 892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Derby Center's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Derby Center 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 Derby Center's 892 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orleans County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orleans 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 Orleans County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Derby Center's 892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Derby Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Derby Center-wide figureread your own land →
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