East Dorset, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East 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 East 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 East Dorset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Dorset — the short answer
East Dorset, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- 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
- ~159
- 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 East Dorset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Dorset's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Dorset
Each reading below is measured for East Dorset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Dorset runs about 159 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 Dorset 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 Dorset is in
East Dorset sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at East Dorset's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bennington County.
What Grows in East Dorset
Every plant below cleared East Dorset's own zone 5a and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Dorset?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (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. 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 East Dorset
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from East Dorset, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Dorset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Dorset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FROST WELLS & PUMPS INCBrownfields · 600 ft
- East Dorset Jiffy Mart #447Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- former Car DealershipUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Town of DorsetUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- VTrans Dorset GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Wendell ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VTRANS-EAST DORSETBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- North Dorset GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Freed ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- R.K. Miles, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- PAD PRINT MACHINERYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- CASELLA WASTE MGMT INC EAST DORSETBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East 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 East Dorset.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of East Dorset
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Dorset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East 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 East 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 East Dorset average
Your land is one point inside East Dorset
Everything above resolves to East 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 East Dorset Average
East Dorset Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across East Dorset
- ●One soil character for all of East Dorset
- ●Frost dates read at East Dorset's scale: May 5 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Dorset's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Dorset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Dorset, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Dorset averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Dorset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Dorset average
How we know this about East 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 East 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 East Dorset
When does frost risk typically end in East Dorset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Dorset typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in East Dorset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Dorset 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 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Dorset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Dorset sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 27, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Dorset?
The federal record around East Dorset shows 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 East Dorset?
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 Dorset's scale — its 5a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East 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 East Dorset’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Dorset's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,423 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Dorset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Dorset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 11 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Dorset, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Dorset's boundary and the 1,423 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Dorset's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Dorsetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Dorset's 1,423 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 East Dorset's 1,423 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East 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 1,423 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Dorset-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontEast Dorset sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides