Greensboro, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Greensboro, 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 Greensboro 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 Greensboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greensboro — the short answer
Greensboro, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- 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
- ~160
- 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 4b is Greensboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greensboro's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greensboro
Each reading below is measured for Greensboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreensboro runs about 160 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
MeasuredGreensboro sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Greensboro is in
Greensboro sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Greensboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orleans County.
What Grows in Greensboro
Every plant below cleared Greensboro's own zone 4b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greensboro?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Greensboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Greensboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 62 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Greensboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greensboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- XPLORE GREENSBORO LLC DBA GREENSBORO GARAGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- The Willey's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Greensboro Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Greensboro Bend StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Greensboro GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Former Lyles Gulf ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Van Leuven PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Smith's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Hardwick Electric Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- O'Malley FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- GREENSBORO TOWN OFFICESBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greensboro'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 Greensboro.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Greensboro
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greensboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greensboro
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.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Greensboro
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 Greensboro average
Your land is one point inside Greensboro
Everything above resolves to Greensboro 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 Greensboro Average
Greensboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Greensboro
- ●One soil character for all of Greensboro
- ●Frost dates read at Greensboro's scale: May 4 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greensboro's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greensboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greensboro, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greensboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greensboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greensboro average
How we know this about Greensboro
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 Greensboro’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 Greensboro
When does frost risk typically end in Greensboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greensboro typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Greensboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greensboro 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 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greensboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greensboro sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 27, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greensboro?
The federal record around Greensboro shows 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Greensboro?
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 Greensboro's scale — its 4b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greensboro'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 Greensboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Greensboro's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,659 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greensboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greensboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 11 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greensboro, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greensboro's boundary and the 1,659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greensboro's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Greensboro 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 Greensboro's 1,659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orleans County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orleans 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 Orleans County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greensboro's 1,659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greensboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Greensboro-wide figureread your own land →
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