Waterbury, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Waterbury, 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 Waterbury 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 Waterbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waterbury — the short answer
Waterbury, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 827 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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
- 827 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 Waterbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waterbury's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waterbury
Each reading below is measured for Waterbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaterbury 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
MeasuredWaterbury 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 Waterbury is in
Waterbury sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Waterbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Waterbury
Every plant below cleared Waterbury's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waterbury?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Waterbury
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waterbury checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waterbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waterbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CABOT HOSIERY MILLS - WATERBURY FACILITYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Abandoned BusinessUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KINNEY DRUGS #101Brownfields · 1300 ft
- CC Warren HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MOUNT MANSFIELD GENERAL DENTISTRYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Waterbury State Police HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- S T PavingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- A G Anderson Co Waterbury PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VT DEPT OF BGS WATERBURY MAINT SHOPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- VT State Complex Power PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Eagle Oil Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Sundown Construction Corp.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waterbury'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 Waterbury.
Total Sites
230
within ~10 miles of Waterbury
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waterbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waterbury
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.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Waterbury
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 Waterbury average
Your land is one point inside Waterbury
Everything above resolves to Waterbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 827 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 Waterbury Average
Waterbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Waterbury
- ●One soil character for all of Waterbury
- ●Frost dates read at Waterbury's scale: May 1 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waterbury's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waterbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waterbury, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waterbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waterbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waterbury average
How we know this about Waterbury
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 Waterbury’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 Waterbury
When does frost risk typically end in Waterbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waterbury 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 Waterbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waterbury 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 Waterbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waterbury 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 Waterbury?
The federal record around Waterbury is a meaningful one — 230 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), 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 Waterbury?
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 Waterbury's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waterbury'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 Waterbury’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waterbury's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 827 acres it covers and 230 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waterbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waterbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 15 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 230 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waterbury, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waterbury's boundary and the 827 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waterbury's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waterbury 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 Waterbury's 827 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 Waterbury's 827 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waterbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 827 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 Waterbury-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontWaterbury sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides