St. George, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in St. George, 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 St. George 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 St. George — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. George — the short answer
St. George, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 573 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 573 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 St. George's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. George's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. George
Each reading below is measured for St. George itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. George runs about 177 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
MeasuredSt. George 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 St. George is in
St. George sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. George's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chittenden County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in St. George
Every plant below cleared St. George's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. George?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 St. George
Survey cells within 31 miles of St. George checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near St. George
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. George. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIMON'S STORE & DELI ST GEORGEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Simon's Store & DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Essex Junction AgwayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Well Drill Storage ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Rocky Ridge Golf CourseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MOE DUBOIS EXCAVATINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BURNETT SCRAP METALSBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Moe Dubois ExcavatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- STEPHENS FAMILY DENTISTRYBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- SHELBURNE LIMESTONE CORP SHELBURNE DIVISIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CHAMPLAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- HINESBURG JIFFY MART #446Brownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. George'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 St. George.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. George
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. George
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. George, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 578 sites within ~10 miles of St. George. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 St. George
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 St. George average
Your land is one point inside St. George
Everything above resolves to St. George as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 573 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 St. George Average
St. George Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across St. George
- ●One soil character for all of St. George
- ●Frost dates read at St. George's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. George's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. George
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. George, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. George averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. George — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. George average
How we know this about St. George
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 St. George’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 St. George
When does frost risk typically end in St. George?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. George typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in St. George?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. George typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. George?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. George sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 5, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. George?
The federal record around St. George is a meaningful one — 1,096 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (578), 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 St. George?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. George's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. George'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 St. George’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at St. George's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 573 acres it covers and 1,096 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. George's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. George's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 19 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,096 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. George, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. George's boundary and the 573 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- St. George sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around St. George 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 St. George's 573 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chittenden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chittenden 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 Chittenden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. George's 573 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. George you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 573 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 St. George-wide figureread your own land →
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