Jericho, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jericho, 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 Jericho 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 Jericho — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jericho — the short answer
Jericho, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 888 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 888 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 Jericho's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jericho's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jericho
Each reading below is measured for Jericho itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJericho runs about 175 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
MeasuredJericho 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 Jericho is in
Jericho sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Jericho's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chittenden County.
What Grows in Jericho
Every plant below cleared Jericho's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jericho?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Jericho
Survey cells within 31 miles of Jericho 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 Jericho
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jericho. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Old True Value HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Jericho Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GLOBAL MONTELLO GROUP #424Brownfields · 2500 ft
- Chittenden Mills BeverageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ethan Allen Firing RangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Ray J. Weston ExcavatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Jericho Research ForestUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Clark's Truck CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DR PAUL DUNKLING DDSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- MT MANSFIELD ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- AUTOSMITH LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Jeri-Hill HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jericho'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 Jericho.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jericho
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jericho
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jericho, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 422 sites within ~10 miles of Jericho. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Jericho
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 Jericho average
Your land is one point inside Jericho
Everything above resolves to Jericho as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 888 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 Jericho Average
Jericho Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Jericho
- ●One soil character for all of Jericho
- ●Frost dates read at Jericho's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jericho's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jericho
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jericho, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jericho averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jericho — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jericho average
How we know this about Jericho
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 Jericho’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 Jericho
When does frost risk typically end in Jericho?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jericho typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Jericho?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jericho typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jericho?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jericho sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 5, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jericho?
The federal record around Jericho is a meaningful one — 736 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (422), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Jericho?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jericho's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jericho'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 Jericho’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jericho's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 888 acres it covers and 736 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jericho's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jericho's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 19 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 736 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jericho, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jericho's boundary and the 888 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jericho's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Jericho 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 Jericho's 888 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 Jericho's 888 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jericho you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 888 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Jericho-wide figureread your own land →