Island Pond, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Island Pond, 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 Island Pond 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 Island Pond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Island Pond — the short answer
Island Pond, Vermont: USDA zone 4a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 4a is Island Pond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Island Pond's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Island Pond
Each reading below is measured for Island Pond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIsland Pond runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredIsland Pond sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Island Pond is in
Island Pond sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Island Pond's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Island Pond
Every plant below cleared Island Pond's own zone 4a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Island Pond?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around Island Pond
Survey cells within 31 miles of Island Pond checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 82 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Island Pond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Island Pond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONSOLIDATED COMMUNICATIONS OF VERMONT COMPLANY LLCBrownfields · 800 ft
- Ethan Allen IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #15330Brownfields · 900 ft
- TRM GROCERY LLC DBA KINGDOM MARKET INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Kingdom MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- North East Auto SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ISLAND POND COUNTRY MARKET & DELIBrownfields · 1100 ft
- The Lakefront Express Mart & DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BRIGHTON CHEVROLETBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Brighton GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NORTHERN COUNTIES HEALTH CARE DBA/ISLAND POND HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Pepin's GettyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Island Pond'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 Island Pond.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Island Pond
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Island Pond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Island Pond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Island Pond, Mining runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Island Pond. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Island Pond
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 Island Pond average
Your land is one point inside Island Pond
Everything above resolves to Island Pond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Island Pond Average
Island Pond Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Island Pond
- ●One soil character for all of Island Pond
- ●Frost dates read at Island Pond's scale: May 13 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Island Pond's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Island Pond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Island Pond, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Island Pond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Island Pond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Island Pond average
How we know this about Island Pond
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 Island Pond’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 Island Pond
When does frost risk typically end in Island Pond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Island Pond typically lands around May 13, 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 Jun 3.
When is the first frost in Island Pond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Island Pond typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Island Pond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Island Pond sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 23, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Island Pond?
The federal record around Island Pond shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Island Pond?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Island Pond rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Island Pond's scale — its 4a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Island Pond'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 Island Pond’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Island Pond's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,689 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Island Pond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Island Pond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Oct 7 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Island Pond, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Island Pond's boundary and the 2,689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Island Pond's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Island Pond 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 Island Pond's 2,689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Island Pond's 2,689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Island Pond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,689 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Island Pond-wide figureread your own land →
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