South Lincoln, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 South Lincoln, 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 South Lincoln 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 South Lincoln — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Lincoln — the short answer
South Lincoln, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 South Lincoln's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Lincoln's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Lincoln
Each reading below is measured for South Lincoln itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Lincoln runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSouth Lincoln 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 South Lincoln is in
South Lincoln sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at South Lincoln's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Addison County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in South Lincoln
Every plant below cleared South Lincoln's own zone 5a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Lincoln?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Documented around South Lincoln
Survey cells within 31 miles of South Lincoln checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Lincoln
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Lincoln. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Strickholm FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lincoln Municipal GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Breadloaf Roadless AreaMining · 3.5 mi
- A R RATHBUN SAND AND GRAVELBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- Lincoln General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- VH Lust Farm/Vallemar FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Bristol Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- THE A JOHNSON CO LLCBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- Charles Peck FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Ripton Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Veloura Thompson PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Warren StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Lincoln'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 South Lincoln.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of South Lincoln
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Lincoln
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Lincoln
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in South Lincoln
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 South Lincoln average
Your land is one point inside South Lincoln
Everything above resolves to South Lincoln as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 South Lincoln Average
South Lincoln Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across South Lincoln
- ●One soil character for all of South Lincoln
- ●Frost dates read at South Lincoln's scale: May 12 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Lincoln's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Lincoln
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Lincoln, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Lincoln averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Lincoln — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Lincoln average
How we know this about South Lincoln
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 South Lincoln’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 South Lincoln
When does frost risk typically end in South Lincoln?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Lincoln typically lands around May 12, 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 Jun 2.
When is the first frost in South Lincoln?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Lincoln typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Lincoln?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Lincoln sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 23, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Lincoln?
The federal record around South Lincoln shows 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in South Lincoln?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, South Lincoln rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at South Lincoln's scale — its 5a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Lincoln'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 South Lincoln’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Lincoln's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,521 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Lincoln's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Lincoln's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Oct 7 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Lincoln, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Lincoln's boundary and the 1,521 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- South Lincoln sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around South Lincoln 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 South Lincoln's 1,521 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Addison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Addison 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 Addison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Lincoln's 1,521 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Lincoln you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,521 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 South Lincoln-wide figureread your own land →
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