Townshend, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Townshend, 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 Townshend 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 Townshend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Townshend — the short answer
Townshend, Vermont: USDA zone 5b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 223 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 223 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 5b is Townshend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Townshend's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Townshend
Each reading below is measured for Townshend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTownshend 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
MeasuredTownshend sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Townshend is in
Townshend sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Townshend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Windham County.
What Grows in Townshend
Every plant below cleared Townshend's own zone 5b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Townshend?
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 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 13 — 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 Townshend
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Townshend, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Townshend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Townshend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRACE COTTAGE MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING PROJECTBrownfields · 800 ft
- VALLEY VILLAGEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Harmonyville StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOWNSHEND HIGHWAY GARAGEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Bischoffs Auto Sales/Harringtons GarUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS - TOWNSHEND LAKE DAMBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- R L VALLEE RIVERBEND MKTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- River Bend Farm MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Riverbend Farm MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TOWNSHEND HYDROBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Townshend Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Mo's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Townshend'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 Townshend.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Townshend
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Townshend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Townshend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Townshend, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Townshend. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Townshend
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 Townshend average
Your land is one point inside Townshend
Everything above resolves to Townshend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 223 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 Townshend Average
Townshend Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Townshend
- ●One soil character for all of Townshend
- ●Frost dates read at Townshend's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Townshend's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Townshend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Townshend, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Townshend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Townshend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Townshend average
How we know this about Townshend
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 Townshend’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 Townshend
When does frost risk typically end in Townshend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Townshend 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 Townshend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Townshend typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Townshend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Townshend sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 29, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Townshend?
The federal record around Townshend is a meaningful one — 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), 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 Townshend?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Townshend's scale — its 5b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Townshend'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 Townshend’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Townshend's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 223 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Townshend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Townshend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 13 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Townshend, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Townshend's boundary and the 223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Townshend's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Townshendlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Townshend's 223 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Windham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Windham 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 Windham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Townshend's 223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Townshend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 223 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 Townshend-wide figureread your own land →
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