Hardwick, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hardwick, 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 Hardwick 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 Hardwick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hardwick — the short answer
Hardwick, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- 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 4b is Hardwick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hardwick's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hardwick
Each reading below is measured for Hardwick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHardwick runs about 158 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
MeasuredHardwick 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 Hardwick is in
Hardwick sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hardwick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caledonia County.
What Grows in Hardwick
Every plant below cleared Hardwick's own zone 4b and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hardwick?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 10 — 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 Hardwick
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hardwick checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hardwick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hardwick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARDWICK JIFFY MART#457Brownfields · 2400 ft
- Hardwick Jiffy Mart #457Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TOPS MARKETS LLC #742Brownfields · 2500 ft
- Gebbie's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE #5672Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Brochu Citgo ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Dona's Car StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MIKES SERVICE CENTER INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Mike's Gulf Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HARDWICK ELECTRIC DEPTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- N U BEVERAGE DBA M & M BEVERAGEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- M & M Beverage CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hardwick'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 Hardwick.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Hardwick
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hardwick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hardwick
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 Hardwick
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 Hardwick average
Your land is one point inside Hardwick
Everything above resolves to Hardwick 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 Hardwick Average
Hardwick Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hardwick
- ●One soil character for all of Hardwick
- ●Frost dates read at Hardwick's scale: May 5 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hardwick's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hardwick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hardwick, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hardwick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hardwick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hardwick average
How we know this about Hardwick
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 Hardwick’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 Hardwick
When does frost risk typically end in Hardwick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hardwick 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 Hardwick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hardwick typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hardwick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hardwick sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 26, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hardwick?
The federal record around Hardwick shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Hardwick?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hardwick's scale — its 4b band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hardwick'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 Hardwick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hardwick's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,006 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hardwick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hardwick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 10 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hardwick, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hardwick's boundary and the 1,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hardwick's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hardwick 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 Hardwick's 1,006 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caledonia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caledonia 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 Caledonia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hardwick's 1,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hardwick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,006 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Hardwick-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Growing region
Nearby growing guides