Buchanan, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buchanan, 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buchanan — the short answer
Buchanan, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 906 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 906 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 7a is Buchanan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buchanan's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buchanan
Each reading below is measured for Buchanan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuchanan runs about 237 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBuchanan sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Buchanan is in
Buchanan sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buchanan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westchester County.
What Grows in Buchanan
Every plant below cleared Buchanan's own zone 7a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buchanan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Buchanan
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Buchanan, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Buchanan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buchanan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCHANAN GAS TURBINE SITEBrownfields · 800 ft
- AGT - VALVE 14B INDIAN POINT ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ENTERGY - INDIAN POINT 2 NUCLEAR STATIONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ENTERGY - INDIAN POINT 2 NUCLEAR STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- ENTERGY INDIAN POINT 3 NUCLEAR GENERATINGBrownfields · 1100 ft
- LAFARGE NORTH AMERICA INC - BUCHANANBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LAFARGE NORTH AMERICA INC - BUCHANANToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- BUCHANAN PROFESSIONAL BUILDINGBrownfields · 1700 ft
- AGT VALVE 14-3 LN L30B MP 84.34 BUCHANANBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BAUMAN & SONS - BUSES INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- RIVERSIDE SILKSCREEN PRINTERSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- BASF CATALYSTS LLC - BUCHANAN LABORATORYBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buchanan'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 Buchanan.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buchanan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buchanan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buchanan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buchanan — PFAS (9 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Buchanan
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 Buchanan average
Your land is one point inside Buchanan
Everything above resolves to Buchanan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 906 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 Buchanan Average
Buchanan Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Buchanan
- ●One soil character for all of Buchanan
- ●Frost dates read at Buchanan's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buchanan's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buchanan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buchanan, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buchanan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buchanan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buchanan average
How we know this about Buchanan
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 Buchanan’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 Buchanan
When does frost risk typically end in Buchanan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buchanan typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 17.
When is the first frost in Buchanan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buchanan typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buchanan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buchanan sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 5, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buchanan?
The federal record around Buchanan is a meaningful one — 516 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (302), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Buchanan?
From about Oct 20 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 Nov 19 (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 Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buchanan's scale — its 7a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buchanan'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 Buchanan’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Buchanan's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 906 acres it covers and 516 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buchanan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buchanan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 19 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 516 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buchanan, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buchanan's boundary and the 906 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buchanan's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Buchananlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buchanan's 906 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westchester County
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Westchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buchanan's 906 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buchanan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 906 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Buchanan-wide figureread your own land →
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