Vergennes, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Vergennes, 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 Vergennes 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 Vergennes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vergennes — the short answer
Vergennes, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Vergennes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vergennes's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vergennes
Each reading below is measured for Vergennes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVergennes runs about 178 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
MeasuredVergennes 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 Vergennes is in
Vergennes sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vergennes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Addison County.
What Grows in Vergennes
Every plant below cleared Vergennes's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vergennes?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Vergennes
Survey cells within 31 miles of Vergennes checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 51 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vergennes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vergennes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAPLEFIELDS VERGENNES #69Brownfields · 500 ft
- Small City MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- GMP VERGENNES HYDRO PLANT 9Brownfields · 850 ft
- Old Vergennes Town ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- JW & DE Ryan Plumbing and HeatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Palmer's BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COCO VergennesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- C J S CITGOBrownfields · 1500 ft
- WESCO INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Champlain Farms Sunoco 340-VGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Agway, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AUTO CREEKBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vergennes'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 Vergennes.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Vergennes
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vergennes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vergennes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vergennes, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Vergennes. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Vergennes
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 Vergennes average
Your land is one point inside Vergennes
Everything above resolves to Vergennes 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 city 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 Vergennes Average
Vergennes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Vergennes
- ●One soil character for all of Vergennes
- ●Frost dates read at Vergennes's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vergennes's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vergennes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vergennes, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vergennes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vergennes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vergennes average
How we know this about Vergennes
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Vergennes’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Vergennes
When does frost risk typically end in Vergennes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vergennes 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 Vergennes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vergennes typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vergennes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vergennes sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 6, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vergennes?
The federal record around Vergennes shows 176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Vergennes?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vergennes's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vergennes'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 Vergennes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vergennes's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,572 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vergennes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vergennes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 20 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vergennes, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vergennes's boundary and the 1,572 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vergennes's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Vergennes 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 Vergennes's 1,572 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 Vergennes's 1,572 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vergennes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,572 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Vergennes-wide figureread your own land →
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