Stowe, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stowe, 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 Stowe 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 Stowe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stowe — the short answer
Stowe, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 493 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 Stowe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stowe's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stowe
Each reading below is measured for Stowe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStowe runs about 169 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
MeasuredStowe 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 Stowe is in
Stowe sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Stowe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamoille County.
What Grows in Stowe
Every plant below cleared Stowe's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stowe?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Stowe
Survey cells within 31 miles of Stowe checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 54 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stowe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stowe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- David's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Bourne's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TOWN OF STOWEBrownfields · 900 ft
- Curtis & Bedell, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DR JEFFREY MCKECHNIE DMDBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Maplefields at StoweUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- R L VALLEE MAPLEFIELDS AT STOWEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Golden Eagle Resort Alpine SideUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STOWE ELECTRIC DEPARTMENT - DUMP ROAD EQUIPMENT YARDBrownfields · 1400 ft
- STOWE TRANSFER STABrownfields · 1400 ft
- A J'S SKI & SPORTSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Stowe Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stowe'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 Stowe.
Total Sites
263
within ~10 miles of Stowe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stowe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stowe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stowe, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 128 sites within ~10 miles of Stowe. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Stowe
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 Stowe average
Your land is one point inside Stowe
Everything above resolves to Stowe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 493 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 Stowe Average
Stowe Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Stowe
- ●One soil character for all of Stowe
- ●Frost dates read at Stowe's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stowe's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stowe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stowe, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stowe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stowe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stowe average
How we know this about Stowe
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 Stowe’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 Stowe
When does frost risk typically end in Stowe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stowe typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Stowe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stowe 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 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stowe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stowe sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 30, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stowe?
The federal record around Stowe is a meaningful one — 263 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (128), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Stowe?
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 Stowe's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stowe'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 Stowe’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stowe's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 493 acres it covers and 263 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stowe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stowe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 14 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 263 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stowe, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stowe's boundary and the 493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stowe's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Stowe 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 Stowe's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamoille County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamoille 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 Lamoille County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stowe's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stowe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Stowe-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontStowe sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides