Grafton, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grafton, 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 Grafton 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 Grafton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grafton — the short answer
Grafton, Vermont: USDA zone 5b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 83 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- 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
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 83 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 5b is Grafton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grafton's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grafton
Each reading below is measured for Grafton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrafton runs about 167 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
MeasuredGrafton sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Grafton is in
Grafton sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Grafton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Windham County.
What Grows in Grafton
Every plant below cleared Grafton's own zone 5b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grafton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Grafton
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Grafton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Grafton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grafton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Grafton Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GRAFTON AUTO SERVICE INCBrownfields · 700 ft
- Wilson and Lawrence GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Grafton Town Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Contel of VermontUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Ruschell PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Cambridgeport Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- DUMMERSTON ORCHARDSuperfund · 4.4 mi
- VERMONT AGENCY OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- Sunoco Gasoline StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 37 Main Street ArtsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Former Fergat LumberUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grafton'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 Grafton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grafton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grafton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grafton, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Grafton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Grafton
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 Grafton average
Your land is one point inside Grafton
Everything above resolves to Grafton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 83 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 Grafton Average
Grafton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Grafton
- ●One soil character for all of Grafton
- ●Frost dates read at Grafton's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grafton's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grafton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grafton, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grafton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grafton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grafton average
How we know this about Grafton
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 Grafton’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 Grafton
When does frost risk typically end in Grafton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grafton typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Grafton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grafton 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 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grafton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grafton sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 29, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grafton?
The federal record around Grafton is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Grafton?
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 Grafton's scale — its 5b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grafton'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 Grafton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Grafton's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 83 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grafton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grafton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 13 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grafton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grafton's boundary and the 83 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grafton's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Graftonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grafton's 83 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Windham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Windham 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 Windham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grafton's 83 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grafton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 83 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Grafton-wide figureread your own land →
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