Buffalo, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buffalo, 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 Buffalo 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 Buffalo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buffalo — the short answer
Buffalo, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 26K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 26K 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 6b is Buffalo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buffalo's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buffalo
Each reading below is measured for Buffalo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuffalo runs about 218 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
MeasuredBuffalo sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Buffalo is in
Buffalo sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buffalo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Buffalo
Every plant below cleared Buffalo's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buffalo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Buffalo
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Buffalo, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Buffalo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buffalo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RELIANCE LEAD, SOLDER & BABBITT CO. INC.Superfund · 450 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP MH416 & MH526Brownfields · 450 ft
- BUFFALO, CITY OF - 379 GENESEE STREETSuperfund · 500 ft
- BUFFALO, CITY OF - 379 GENESEE STREETBrownfields · 500 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP POLE 635 SPILL 2306754Brownfields · 500 ft
- EVERGREEN LOFTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP STATION 38 SUBBrownfields · 750 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1071980 D256194Brownfields · 850 ft
- BUFFALO FORGE COMPANYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BUFFALO FORGE COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- BUFFALO FORGE CO. DIV HOWDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BUFFALO FORGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buffalo'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 Buffalo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buffalo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buffalo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buffalo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buffalo — Superfund (61 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (212 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Buffalo
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 Buffalo average
Your land is one point inside Buffalo
Everything above resolves to Buffalo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 26K 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 city 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 Buffalo Average
Buffalo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Buffalo
- ●One soil character for all of Buffalo
- ●Frost dates read at Buffalo's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buffalo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buffalo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buffalo, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buffalo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buffalo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buffalo average
How we know this about Buffalo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Buffalo’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Buffalo
When does frost risk typically end in Buffalo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Buffalo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buffalo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buffalo sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Nov 2, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buffalo?
The federal record around Buffalo is a meaningful one — 3,116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,545), the nearest Superfund 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 Buffalo?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buffalo's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buffalo'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 Buffalo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Buffalo's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,843 acres it covers and 3,116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buffalo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buffalo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 16 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buffalo, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buffalo's boundary and the 25,843 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buffalo's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Buffalolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buffalo's 25,843 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buffalo's 25,843 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buffalo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,843 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Buffalo-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkBuffalo sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides