Wells, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wells, 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 Wells 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 Wells — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wells — the short answer
Wells, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 508 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 508 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 Wells's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wells's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wells
Each reading below is measured for Wells itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWells runs about 177 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
MeasuredWells 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 Wells is in
Wells sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Wells's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rutland County.
What Grows in Wells
Every plant below cleared Wells's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wells?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Wells
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Wells, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wells
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wells. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Formerly Known As Taplin GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- White's Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LAKE ST CATHERINE COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- George Clark's Butternut BendUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Sheldon's ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Doc's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HHWC RCSWD WELLS TOWN TRF STABrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Waite's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Apollo Fuel Pawlet Station SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Loomis Trucking GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HHWC RCSWD METTOWEE COMM SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- W3220Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wells'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 Wells.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Wells
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wells
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wells
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wells, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wells — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (91 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Wells
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 Wells average
Your land is one point inside Wells
Everything above resolves to Wells as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 508 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 Wells Average
Wells Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wells
- ●One soil character for all of Wells
- ●Frost dates read at Wells's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wells's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wells
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wells, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wells averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wells — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wells average
How we know this about Wells
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 Wells’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 Wells
When does frost risk typically end in Wells?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wells typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Wells?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wells typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wells?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wells sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 4, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wells?
The federal record around Wells shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wells?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wells's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wells'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 Wells’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wells's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 508 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wells's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wells's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 18 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wells, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wells's boundary and the 508 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wells's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wellslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wells's 508 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rutland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rutland 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 Rutland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wells's 508 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wells you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 508 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wells-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontWells sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides