East Barre, 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in East Barre, 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 East Barre 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 East Barre — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Barre — the short answer
East Barre, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 East Barre's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Barre's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Barre
Each reading below is measured for East Barre itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Barre runs about 163 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
MeasuredEast Barre 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 East Barre is in
East Barre sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at East Barre's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in East Barre
Every plant below cleared East Barre's own zone 5a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Barre?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around East Barre
Survey cells within 31 miles of East Barre checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Barre
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Barre. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESTES TRUCKING & EXC INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- F M AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Old Whitcomb GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Cameron GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CAMERONS GARAGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CROSSWAY AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Pike Industries (Cooley Asphalt)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Barre Jiffy Mart #450Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BARRE JIFFY MART #450Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- EAST BARRE AUTO SALESBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- VTRANS-ORANGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- VTrans Orange GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Barre'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 East Barre.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Barre
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Barre
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Barre, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 222 sites within ~10 miles of East Barre. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in East Barre
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 East Barre average
Your land is one point inside East Barre
Everything above resolves to East Barre as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 East Barre Average
East Barre Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across East Barre
- ●One soil character for all of East Barre
- ●Frost dates read at East Barre's scale: May 1 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Barre's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Barre
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Barre, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Barre averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Barre — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Barre average
How we know this about East Barre
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 East Barre’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 East Barre
When does frost risk typically end in East Barre?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Barre typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in East Barre?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Barre typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Barre?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Barre sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 27, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Barre?
The federal record around East Barre is a meaningful one — 453 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (222), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in East Barre?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Barre's scale — its 5a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Barre'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 East Barre’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Barre's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,677 acres it covers and 453 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Barre's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Barre's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 11 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 453 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Barre, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Barre's boundary and the 1,677 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Barre's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around East Barre 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 East Barre's 1,677 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Barre's 1,677 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Barre you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,677 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 East Barre-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontEast Barre sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides