Montpelier, 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 Montpelier, 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 Montpelier 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 Montpelier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montpelier — the short answer
Montpelier, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Montpelier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montpelier's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montpelier
Each reading below is measured for Montpelier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontpelier runs about 170 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
MeasuredMontpelier 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 Montpelier is in
Montpelier sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Montpelier's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Montpelier
Every plant below cleared Montpelier's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montpelier?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Montpelier
Survey cells within 31 miles of Montpelier checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Montpelier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montpelier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAIN STREET FAMILY DENTISTRY PCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- INTEGRATIVE FAMILY MEDICINE MONTPELIERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Inn at MontpeleirUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Bethany Congregational ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Net C.O. (4782-06)Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- UNION ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Johnson Well DrillingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HERBERT DENTAL PCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Office & Mercantile BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- US FOB MontpelierUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MONTPELIER FIRE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Swasey ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montpelier'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 Montpelier.
Total Sites
567
within ~10 miles of Montpelier
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montpelier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montpelier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montpelier, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 287 sites within ~10 miles of Montpelier. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Montpelier
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 Montpelier average
Your land is one point inside Montpelier
Everything above resolves to Montpelier as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 city 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 Montpelier Average
Montpelier Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Montpelier
- ●One soil character for all of Montpelier
- ●Frost dates read at Montpelier's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montpelier's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montpelier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montpelier, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montpelier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montpelier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montpelier average
How we know this about Montpelier
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Montpelier’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Montpelier
When does frost risk typically end in Montpelier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montpelier typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Montpelier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montpelier typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montpelier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montpelier sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 2, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montpelier?
The federal record around Montpelier is a meaningful one — 567 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (287), the nearest Brownfields 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 Montpelier?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montpelier's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montpelier'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 Montpelier’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Montpelier's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,436 acres it covers and 567 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montpelier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montpelier's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 16 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 567 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montpelier, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montpelier's boundary and the 6,436 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montpelier's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Montpelier 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 Montpelier's 6,436 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 Montpelier's 6,436 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montpelier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,436 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 Montpelier-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontMontpelier sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides