Rutland, 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.
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 Rutland, 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 Rutland 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 Rutland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rutland — the short answer
Rutland, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Rutland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rutland's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rutland
Each reading below is measured for Rutland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRutland 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
MeasuredRutland 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 Rutland is in
Rutland sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Rutland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rutland County.
What Grows in Rutland
Every plant below cleared Rutland's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rutland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Rutland
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Rutland, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rutland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rutland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mac's Center RutlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Carey's Auto Sales Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Foster PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Consolidated CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF VERMONT RUTLAND CAMPUSBrownfields · 600 ft
- Stewart's Shop #400Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- TJ MAXX 0141Brownfields · 800 ft
- Stewart's Shop #194Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VT DEPT OF BGS RUTLAND COURT MAINT SHOPBrownfields · 850 ft
- Rutland Public Works Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- State Office BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Rutland HeraldUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rutland'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 Rutland.
Total Sites
483
within ~10 miles of Rutland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rutland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rutland
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 Rutland
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 Rutland average
Your land is one point inside Rutland
Everything above resolves to Rutland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Rutland Average
Rutland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rutland
- ●One soil character for all of Rutland
- ●Frost dates read at Rutland's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rutland's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rutland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rutland, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rutland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rutland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rutland average
How we know this about Rutland
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 Rutland’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 Rutland
When does frost risk typically end in Rutland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rutland 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 Rutland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rutland typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rutland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rutland sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 30, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rutland?
The federal record around Rutland is a meaningful one — 483 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (250), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rutland?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rutland's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rutland'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 Rutland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rutland's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,834 acres it covers and 483 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rutland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rutland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 14 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 483 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rutland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rutland's boundary and the 4,834 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rutland's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rutlandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rutland's 4,834 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rutland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rutland 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 Rutland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rutland's 4,834 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rutland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,834 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rutland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontRutland sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides