Marshfield, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Marshfield, 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 Marshfield 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 Marshfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marshfield — the short answer
Marshfield, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 165 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 165 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 Marshfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marshfield's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marshfield
Each reading below is measured for Marshfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarshfield runs about 157 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
MeasuredMarshfield 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 Marshfield is in
Marshfield sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Marshfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Marshfield
Every plant below cleared Marshfield's own zone 4b and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marshfield?
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 9 — 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 Marshfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Marshfield 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 Marshfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marshfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Marshfield Village StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- River's Edge Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MARSHFIELD CONVENIENCE PLUS LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- Tim's Convenience CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Marshfield Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GMP MARSHFIELD HYDRO PLANT 6Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Former Marshfield Town Clerk's Off.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CARTER MACHINEBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- HILLTOP AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CABOT RECYCLING CENTERBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Groton Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- WOODBURY GOLF COURSEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marshfield'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 Marshfield.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Marshfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marshfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marshfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marshfield, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Marshfield. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Marshfield
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 Marshfield average
Your land is one point inside Marshfield
Everything above resolves to Marshfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 165 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 Marshfield Average
Marshfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Marshfield
- ●One soil character for all of Marshfield
- ●Frost dates read at Marshfield's scale: May 5 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marshfield's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marshfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marshfield, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marshfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marshfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marshfield average
How we know this about Marshfield
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 Marshfield’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 Marshfield
When does frost risk typically end in Marshfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marshfield 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 Marshfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marshfield typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marshfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marshfield sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 25, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marshfield?
The federal record around Marshfield shows 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marshfield?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marshfield's scale — its 4b band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marshfield'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 Marshfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marshfield's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 165 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marshfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marshfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 9 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marshfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marshfield's boundary and the 165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marshfield's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Marshfield 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 Marshfield's 165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marshfield's 165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marshfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marshfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontMarshfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides