Manchester Center, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Manchester Center, 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 Manchester Center 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 Manchester Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manchester Center — the short answer
Manchester Center, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- 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 5a is Manchester Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manchester Center's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manchester Center
Each reading below is measured for Manchester Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManchester Center runs about 159 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
MeasuredManchester Center 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 Manchester Center is in
Manchester Center sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Manchester Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bennington County.
What Grows in Manchester Center
Every plant below cleared Manchester Center's own zone 5a and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manchester Center?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Manchester Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Manchester Center, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Manchester Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manchester Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXPRESS COPY LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NORTHSHIRE MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MANCHESTER HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PAULS TOWING & AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Manchester Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CATHERINE CECH DMD PCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Dorr Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DORR OIL COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GREEN MT VETERINARY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Hand ChevroletUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Charles TowsleeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- STONE ROAD ENERGY LLC/DBA DORR OIL AND PROPANEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manchester Center'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 Manchester Center.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Manchester Center
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manchester Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manchester Center
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Manchester Center
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 Manchester Center average
Your land is one point inside Manchester Center
Everything above resolves to Manchester Center 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 Manchester Center Average
Manchester Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Manchester Center
- ●One soil character for all of Manchester Center
- ●Frost dates read at Manchester Center's scale: May 5 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manchester Center's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manchester Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manchester Center, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manchester Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manchester Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manchester Center average
How we know this about Manchester Center
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 Manchester Center’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 Manchester Center
When does frost risk typically end in Manchester Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manchester Center 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 Manchester Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manchester Center 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 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manchester Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manchester Center sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 27, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manchester Center?
The federal record around Manchester Center shows 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Manchester Center?
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 Manchester Center's scale — its 5a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manchester Center'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 Manchester Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Manchester Center's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,961 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manchester Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manchester Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 11 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manchester Center, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manchester Center's boundary and the 2,961 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manchester Center's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Manchester Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manchester Center's 2,961 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bennington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bennington 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 Bennington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manchester Center's 2,961 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manchester Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,961 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Manchester Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontManchester Center sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides