Wolcott, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wolcott, 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 Wolcott 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 Wolcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wolcott — the short answer
Wolcott, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 570 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 570 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 Wolcott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wolcott's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wolcott
Each reading below is measured for Wolcott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWolcott runs about 160 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
MeasuredWolcott 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 Wolcott is in
Wolcott sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Wolcott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamoille County.
What Grows in Wolcott
Every plant below cleared Wolcott's own zone 4b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wolcott?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Wolcott
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wolcott checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wolcott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wolcott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Vermont WeatherboardUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Williams Garage and SalvageUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Former Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Wolcott StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Bucks PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VT AGENCY OF TRANSPORATION - ABANDONED USTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Property/Martin new ownerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Udall Mine/Wolcott MineMining · 2.6 mi
- The Elmore StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Wapanacki Program Center, VgscUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CASPIAN ARMS LTDBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Gates TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wolcott'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 Wolcott.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wolcott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wolcott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wolcott, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Wolcott. 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 Wolcott
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 Wolcott average
Your land is one point inside Wolcott
Everything above resolves to Wolcott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 570 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 Wolcott Average
Wolcott Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Wolcott
- ●One soil character for all of Wolcott
- ●Frost dates read at Wolcott's scale: May 4 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wolcott's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wolcott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wolcott, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wolcott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wolcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wolcott average
How we know this about Wolcott
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 Wolcott’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 Wolcott
When does frost risk typically end in Wolcott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wolcott typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Wolcott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wolcott typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wolcott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wolcott sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 27, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wolcott?
The federal record around Wolcott shows 190 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wolcott?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wolcott's scale — its 4b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wolcott'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 Wolcott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wolcott's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 570 acres it covers and 190 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wolcott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wolcott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 11 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 190 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wolcott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wolcott's boundary and the 570 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wolcott's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wolcott 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 Wolcott's 570 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamoille County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamoille 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 Lamoille County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wolcott's 570 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wolcott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 570 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 Wolcott-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontWolcott sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides