Catskill, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Catskill, 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 Catskill 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 Catskill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Catskill — the short answer
Catskill, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Catskill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catskill's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Catskill
Each reading below is measured for Catskill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCatskill runs about 204 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
MeasuredCatskill sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Catskill is in
Catskill sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Catskill's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Greene County is mostly Northern Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Catskill
Every plant below cleared Catskill's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Catskill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Catskill
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Catskill, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Catskill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Catskill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RIVERVIEW MARINE SERVICES INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- US POSTAL SERVICE (CATSKILL)Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CATSKILL HOUSING AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- THE CATSKILL MARINA CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GREENE COUNTY JAILBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CATSKILL TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- GREENE COUNTY COURT HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- KAATSKILL CONDOSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HOP-O-NOSE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ALEXANDER VARGA & COMPANY CPAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- KOSICE REALTY MANAGEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HOE BOWL CATSKILL LANESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catskill'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 Catskill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Catskill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Catskill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Catskill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Catskill — CAFO (6 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Catskill
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 Catskill average
Your land is one point inside Catskill
Everything above resolves to Catskill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Catskill Average
Catskill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Catskill
- ●One soil character for all of Catskill
- ●Frost dates read at Catskill's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catskill's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Catskill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catskill, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catskill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catskill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catskill average
How we know this about Catskill
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 Catskill’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 Catskill
When does frost risk typically end in Catskill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catskill typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Catskill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Catskill typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Catskill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catskill sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 15, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catskill?
The federal record around Catskill is a meaningful one — 397 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (243), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Catskill?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Catskill's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catskill'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 Catskill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Catskill's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,459 acres it covers and 397 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catskill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Catskill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 29 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 397 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Catskill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Catskill's boundary and the 1,459 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Catskill sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Catskilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Catskill's 1,459 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Catskill's 1,459 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Catskill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,459 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Catskill-wide figureread your own land →