Fairlee, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairlee, 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 Fairlee 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 Fairlee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fairlee — the short answer
Fairlee, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 386 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 386 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 Fairlee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairlee's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairlee
Each reading below is measured for Fairlee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairlee runs about 164 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
MeasuredFairlee 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 Fairlee is in
Fairlee sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Fairlee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Fairlee
Every plant below cleared Fairlee's own zone 5a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairlee?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Fairlee
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Fairlee, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairlee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairlee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRLEE MARINEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL # 15272Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Wings Market and DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GRANTHAM CIRCLE K FMR GRANTHAM MTN MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Champlain Farms Shell 200-FRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WESCO INC CHAMPLAIN FARMSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NH-OSW 2Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- NH-OSW 59Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Waters Sales and ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- VT-FLW 22Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- VT-FLW 12Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- VT-FLW 14Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairlee'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 Fairlee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairlee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairlee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairlee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fairlee — Nitrate (96 sites) and Mining (19 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Fairlee
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 Fairlee average
Your land is one point inside Fairlee
Everything above resolves to Fairlee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 386 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 Fairlee Average
Fairlee Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fairlee
- ●One soil character for all of Fairlee
- ●Frost dates read at Fairlee's scale: May 2 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairlee's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairlee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairlee, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairlee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairlee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairlee average
How we know this about Fairlee
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 Fairlee’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 Fairlee
When does frost risk typically end in Fairlee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairlee typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Fairlee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairlee typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairlee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairlee sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 29, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairlee?
The federal record around Fairlee is a meaningful one — 252 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (96), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Fairlee?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairlee's scale — its 5a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairlee'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 Fairlee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairlee's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 386 acres it covers and 252 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairlee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairlee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 13 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 252 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairlee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairlee's boundary and the 386 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairlee's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairleelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairlee's 386 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairlee's 386 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairlee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 386 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fairlee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontFairlee sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.