Westford, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Westford, 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 Westford 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 Westford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westford — the short answer
Westford, Vermont: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 744 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- 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
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 744 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 Westford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westford's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westford
Each reading below is measured for Westford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestford runs about 174 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
MeasuredWestford 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 Westford is in
Westford sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Westford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chittenden County.
What Grows in Westford
Every plant below cleared Westford's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westford?
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 Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (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. 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 Westford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Westford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 68 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Westford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROVERS NORTHBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Westford MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WESTFORD HWY DEPTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HHWC CSWD WESTFORD TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Kiely ResidenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Westford Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #17982Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- WINDS TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Minor's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- MINORS COUNTRY STORE INCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- RICHFORD HEALTH CENTER, INC. DBA FAIRFAX PHARMACYBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- DAN TURNERS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westford'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 Westford.
Total Sites
407
within ~10 miles of Westford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westford, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 222 sites within ~10 miles of Westford. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Westford
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 Westford average
Your land is one point inside Westford
Everything above resolves to Westford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 744 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 Westford Average
Westford Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Westford
- ●One soil character for all of Westford
- ●Frost dates read at Westford's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westford's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westford, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westford average
How we know this about Westford
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 Westford’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 Westford
When does frost risk typically end in Westford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westford typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Westford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westford 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 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westford sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 4, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westford?
The federal record around Westford is a meaningful one — 407 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (222), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Westford?
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 Westford's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westford'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 Westford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Westford's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 744 acres it covers and 407 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 18 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 407 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westford, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westford's boundary and the 744 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Westford's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Westford 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 Westford's 744 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chittenden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chittenden 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 Chittenden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Westford's 744 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 744 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Westford-wide figureread your own land →
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