Waitsfield, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waitsfield, 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 Waitsfield 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 Waitsfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waitsfield — the short answer
Waitsfield, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 419 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 419 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 Waitsfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waitsfield's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waitsfield
Each reading below is measured for Waitsfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaitsfield runs about 167 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
MeasuredWaitsfield 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 Waitsfield is in
Waitsfield sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Waitsfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Waitsfield
Every plant below cleared Waitsfield's own zone 5a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waitsfield?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Waitsfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waitsfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waitsfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waitsfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Champlain Farms Gulf 350-WFUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CHAMPLAIN FARMS MTN VALLEY MARKETINGBrownfields · 600 ft
- IRASVILLE COUNTRY STOREBrownfields · 600 ft
- Irasville Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TIGERS AUTOBrownfields · 750 ft
- VALLEY DENTAL ASSOCIATESBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Mad River Green Shopping Ctr/BisbeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SHAWS 326Brownfields · 1300 ft
- CREATIVE MICROSYSTEMS CORPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WOOD & WOOD SIGNSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SIMON'S WAITSFIELD STOREBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Suburban Heating Oil WaitsfieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waitsfield'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 Waitsfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waitsfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waitsfield
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Waitsfield
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 Waitsfield average
Your land is one point inside Waitsfield
Everything above resolves to Waitsfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 419 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 Waitsfield Average
Waitsfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Waitsfield
- ●One soil character for all of Waitsfield
- ●Frost dates read at Waitsfield's scale: May 1 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waitsfield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waitsfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waitsfield, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waitsfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waitsfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waitsfield average
How we know this about Waitsfield
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 Waitsfield’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 Waitsfield
When does frost risk typically end in Waitsfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waitsfield typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Waitsfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waitsfield typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waitsfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waitsfield sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 1, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waitsfield?
The federal record around Waitsfield shows 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), 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 Waitsfield?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waitsfield's scale — its 5a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waitsfield'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 Waitsfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waitsfield's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 419 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waitsfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waitsfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 15 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waitsfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waitsfield's boundary and the 419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waitsfield's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waitsfield 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 Waitsfield's 419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waitsfield's 419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waitsfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 419 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 Waitsfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontWaitsfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides