Hanksville, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hanksville, 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 Hanksville 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 Hanksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hanksville — the short answer
Hanksville, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 84 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 84 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 Hanksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hanksville's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hanksville
Each reading below is measured for Hanksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHanksville runs about 161 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
MeasuredHanksville 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 Hanksville is in
Hanksville sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hanksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chittenden County.
What Grows in Hanksville
Every plant below cleared Hanksville's own zone 5a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hanksville?
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 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hanksville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hanksville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hanksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hanksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KENS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Jerusalem Corners Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- HUNTINGTON TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- Huntington Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HHWC CSWD HUNTINGTON FIRE DEPTBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- TAFT MILK AND MAPLEBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- MAD RIVER GLEN COOPBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- Mad River Glen Ski AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Breault PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Decosta PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Starksboro Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Shattuck ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hanksville'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 Hanksville.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Hanksville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hanksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hanksville
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 Hanksville
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 Hanksville average
Your land is one point inside Hanksville
Everything above resolves to Hanksville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 84 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 Hanksville Average
Hanksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hanksville
- ●One soil character for all of Hanksville
- ●Frost dates read at Hanksville's scale: May 4 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hanksville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hanksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hanksville, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hanksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hanksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hanksville average
How we know this about Hanksville
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 Hanksville’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 Hanksville
When does frost risk typically end in Hanksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hanksville 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 Hanksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hanksville typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hanksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hanksville sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 28, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hanksville?
The federal record around Hanksville shows 135 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.2 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 Hanksville?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hanksville's scale — its 5a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hanksville'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 Hanksville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hanksville's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 84 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hanksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hanksville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 12 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hanksville, the closest Brownfields record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hanksville's boundary and the 84 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hanksville's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hanksville 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 Hanksville's 84 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chittenden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chittenden 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 Chittenden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hanksville's 84 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hanksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 84 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.2 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 Hanksville-wide figureread your own land →
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