Stratton Mountain, 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 Stratton Mountain, 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 Stratton Mountain 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 Stratton Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stratton Mountain — the short answer
Stratton Mountain, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- 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 Stratton Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stratton Mountain's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stratton Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Stratton Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStratton Mountain runs about 154 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
MeasuredStratton Mountain 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 Stratton Mountain is in
Stratton Mountain sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Stratton Mountain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bennington County.
What Grows in Stratton Mountain
Every plant below cleared Stratton Mountain's own zone 5a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stratton Mountain?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Stratton Mountain
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Stratton Mountain, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stratton Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stratton Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Birkenhaus Inn/Founders LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Stratton Corp Golf Maint/RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Village Watch Bld #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Bradley SweeneyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Stratton SunbowlUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Stratton Corporation MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Stratton Mountain Energy CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Net C.O. (4737-01)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Winhall MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 7-Eleven #32511Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TOWN OF WINHALL TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- Winhall Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stratton Mountain'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 Stratton Mountain.
Total Sites
161
within ~10 miles of Stratton Mountain
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stratton Mountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stratton Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stratton Mountain, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Stratton Mountain. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Stratton Mountain
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 Stratton Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Stratton Mountain
Everything above resolves to Stratton Mountain 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 Stratton Mountain Average
Stratton Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Stratton Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Stratton Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Stratton Mountain's scale: May 8 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stratton Mountain's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stratton Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stratton Mountain, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stratton Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stratton Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stratton Mountain average
How we know this about Stratton Mountain
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 Stratton Mountain’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 Stratton Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Stratton Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stratton Mountain typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Stratton Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stratton Mountain typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stratton Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stratton Mountain sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 25, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stratton Mountain?
The federal record around Stratton Mountain shows 161 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Stratton Mountain?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stratton Mountain's scale — its 5a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stratton Mountain'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 Stratton Mountain’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stratton Mountain's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,681 acres it covers and 161 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stratton Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stratton Mountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 9 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 161 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stratton Mountain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stratton Mountain's boundary and the 1,681 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stratton Mountain's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stratton Mountainlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stratton Mountain's 1,681 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bennington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bennington 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 Bennington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stratton Mountain's 1,681 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stratton Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,681 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Stratton Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontStratton Mountain sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides