West Burke, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Burke, 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 West Burke 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 West Burke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Burke — the short answer
West Burke, Vermont: USDA zone 4a, about 139 days between hard freezes, across 304 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~139
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 304 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 4a is West Burke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Burke's 139-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Burke
Each reading below is measured for West Burke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Burke runs about 139 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWest Burke sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 West Burke is in
West Burke sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at West Burke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caledonia County.
What Grows in West Burke
Every plant below cleared West Burke's own zone 4a and its 139-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Burke?
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 Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around West Burke
Survey cells within 31 miles of West Burke checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 70 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Burke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Burke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- former Kilfasset DairyUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Burke Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BURKE TOWN CLERKS OFFICEBrownfields · 550 ft
- BURKE TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 900 ft
- TOWN OF BURKE TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 900 ft
- Before ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Mike's Gas & RedemptionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WEST BURKE AUTO BODYSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- Proctor Building & DesignUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Norris Trucking and PavingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Calendar Brook Lumber, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Melody Stevens ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Burke'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 West Burke.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Burke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Burke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Burke, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of West Burke. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in West Burke
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 West Burke average
Your land is one point inside West Burke
Everything above resolves to West Burke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 304 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 West Burke Average
West Burke Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across West Burke
- ●One soil character for all of West Burke
- ●Frost dates read at West Burke's scale: May 17 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Burke's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Burke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Burke, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Burke averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Burke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Burke average
How we know this about West Burke
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 West Burke’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 West Burke
When does frost risk typically end in West Burke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Burke typically lands around May 17, 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 Jun 7.
When is the first frost in West Burke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Burke typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 139 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Burke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Burke sees about 139 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 19, about 104 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Burke?
The federal record around West Burke is a meaningful one — 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in West Burke?
With about 139 frost-free days between hard freezes, West Burke rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 167 to 195 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at West Burke's scale — its 4a band and its 139-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Burke'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 West Burke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Burke's own scale — its own ~139-day season between 28°F freezes, the 304 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Burke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Burke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 3 and the ~139-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Burke, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Burke's boundary and the 304 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~139-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Burke's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around West Burke 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 West Burke's 304 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caledonia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caledonia 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 Caledonia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Burke's 304 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Burke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 304 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 West Burke-wide figureread your own land →
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