Camden, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Camden, 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 Camden 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 Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Camden — the short answer
Camden, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Camden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camden's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camden
Each reading below is measured for Camden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCamden runs about 179 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
MeasuredCamden sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Camden is in
Camden sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Camden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oneida County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Camden
Every plant below cleared Camden's own zone 5b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Camden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 23 — 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 Camden
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Camden, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Camden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW YORK TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- U S POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- UNITED CHURCH OF CAMDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CAMDEN(V) FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CAMDEN MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- NORSTAR BANK OF UPSTATE NYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1054520Brownfields · 800 ft
- CAMDEN CENTRAL SCHOOL TRANS. DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CAMDEN WIRE COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9763Brownfields · 1000 ft
- CAMDEN AGWAY COOP. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FASTRAC MARKET #235Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camden'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 Camden.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Camden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Camden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 79 sites within ~10 miles of Camden. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Camden
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 Camden average
Your land is one point inside Camden
Everything above resolves to Camden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Camden Average
Camden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Camden
- ●One soil character for all of Camden
- ●Frost dates read at Camden's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camden's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camden, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camden average
How we know this about Camden
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 Camden’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 Camden
When does frost risk typically end in Camden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camden 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 Camden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camden typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Camden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camden sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 9, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Camden?
The federal record around Camden shows 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), 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 Camden?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Camden's scale — its 5b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camden'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 Camden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Camden's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,559 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Camden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 23 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camden's boundary and the 1,559 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Camden sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Camdenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Camden's 1,559 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oneida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oneida 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 Oneida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Camden's 1,559 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,559 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 Camden-wide figureread your own land →
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