Dorset, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dorset, 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 Dorset 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 Dorset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dorset — the short answer
Dorset, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Dorset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dorset's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dorset
Each reading below is measured for Dorset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDorset runs about 155 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
MeasuredDorset 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 Dorset is in
Dorset sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Dorset's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bennington County.
What Grows in Dorset
Every plant below cleared Dorset's own zone 5a and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dorset?
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 9 — 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 Dorset
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Dorset, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dorset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dorset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dorset Field ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DORSET FIELD CLUBBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Dorset Union StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHRISTOPHER RIZZON AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- HN WILLIAMS STOREBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Mcmilliam PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- J K Adams Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- J K ADAMS COBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Wallace ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Seaward KennelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- THE DORSET SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- HasGas General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dorset'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 Dorset.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Dorset
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dorset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dorset
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.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Dorset
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 Dorset average
Your land is one point inside Dorset
Everything above resolves to Dorset as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Dorset Average
Dorset Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dorset
- ●One soil character for all of Dorset
- ●Frost dates read at Dorset's scale: May 7 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dorset's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dorset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dorset, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dorset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dorset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dorset average
How we know this about Dorset
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 Dorset’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 Dorset
When does frost risk typically end in Dorset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dorset 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.
When is the first frost in Dorset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dorset typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dorset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dorset sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 25, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dorset?
The federal record around Dorset shows 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dorset?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dorset's scale — its 5a band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dorset'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 Dorset’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dorset's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,332 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dorset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dorset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 9 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dorset, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dorset's boundary and the 1,332 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dorset's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dorsetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dorset's 1,332 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bennington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bennington 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 Bennington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dorset's 1,332 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dorset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,332 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles 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 Dorset-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontDorset sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides