Worcester, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Worcester, 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 Worcester 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 Worcester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Worcester — the short answer
Worcester, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 77 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 77 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 Worcester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Worcester's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Worcester
Each reading below is measured for Worcester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWorcester runs about 170 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
MeasuredWorcester 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 Worcester is in
Worcester sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Worcester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Worcester
Every plant below cleared Worcester's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Worcester?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. 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 Worcester
Survey cells within 31 miles of Worcester 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 Worcester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Worcester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LBJ's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LBJ'S GROCERYBrownfields · 400 ft
- WORCESTER TOWN GARAGEBrownfields · 850 ft
- Worcester Fire Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WORCESTER TRANSFER STABrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Maxham Fur Farms, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Twin City Wells IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Maple Corners StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Morse FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Worcester General Store and GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Middlesex Town GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Adamant Co-OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Worcester'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 Worcester.
Total Sites
311
within ~10 miles of Worcester
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Worcester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Worcester
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 Worcester
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 Worcester average
Your land is one point inside Worcester
Everything above resolves to Worcester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 77 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 Worcester Average
Worcester Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Worcester
- ●One soil character for all of Worcester
- ●Frost dates read at Worcester's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Worcester's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Worcester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Worcester, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Worcester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Worcester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Worcester average
How we know this about Worcester
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 Worcester’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 Worcester
When does frost risk typically end in Worcester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Worcester typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Worcester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Worcester 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 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Worcester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Worcester sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Worcester?
The federal record around Worcester is a meaningful one — 311 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Worcester?
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 Worcester's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Worcester'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 Worcester’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Worcester's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 77 acres it covers and 311 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Worcester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Worcester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 15 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 311 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Worcester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Worcester's boundary and the 77 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Worcester's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Worcester 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 Worcester's 77 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 Worcester's 77 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Worcester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 77 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 Worcester-wide figureread your own land →
More in Vermont
Wider growing context
What grows across VermontWorcester sits outside our named growing regions, so Vermont as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides