Cheektowaga, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cheektowaga, 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 Cheektowaga 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 Cheektowaga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cheektowaga — the short answer
Cheektowaga, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 16K 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 Cheektowaga's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheektowaga's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cheektowaga
Each reading below is measured for Cheektowaga itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCheektowaga runs about 216 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
MeasuredCheektowaga 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 Cheektowaga is in
Cheektowaga sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cheektowaga's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Cheektowaga
Every plant below cleared Cheektowaga's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cheektowaga?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Cheektowaga
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Cheektowaga, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cheektowaga
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cheektowaga. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FIRST STUDENT, INC. #20055Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CONAX BUFFALO TECHNOLOGIES LLCBrownfields · 600 ft
- CONAX BUFFALO TECHNOLOGIES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 600 ft
- JAMESTOWN CONTAINER COMPANIES / BUFFALO SPECIALTIES DIVToxics Release Inventory · 600 ft
- KWIK FILL A0018/100Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DELTA SONIC CARWASH-WALDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HOSPIRABrownfields · 950 ft
- HOSPIRAToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- 350 NAGEL DRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- REGIONAL INTERNATIONAL OF WNY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WALDEN PROPERTIES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DUAL PRINT AND MAIL LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheektowaga'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 Cheektowaga.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cheektowaga
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cheektowaga
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheektowaga, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cheektowaga — Superfund (57 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (207 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Cheektowaga
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 Cheektowaga average
Your land is one point inside Cheektowaga
Everything above resolves to Cheektowaga as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 Cheektowaga Average
Cheektowaga Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cheektowaga
- ●One soil character for all of Cheektowaga
- ●Frost dates read at Cheektowaga's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheektowaga's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cheektowaga
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheektowaga, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheektowaga averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheektowaga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheektowaga average
How we know this about Cheektowaga
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 Cheektowaga’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 Cheektowaga
When does frost risk typically end in Cheektowaga?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheektowaga typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Cheektowaga?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cheektowaga typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cheektowaga?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheektowaga sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 29, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheektowaga?
The federal record around Cheektowaga is a meaningful one — 3,233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,608), 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 Cheektowaga?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cheektowaga's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheektowaga'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 Cheektowaga’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cheektowaga's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,241 acres it covers and 3,233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheektowaga's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheektowaga's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 12 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cheektowaga, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cheektowaga's boundary and the 16,241 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cheektowaga's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cheektowagalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cheektowaga's 16,241 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 Cheektowaga's 16,241 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cheektowaga you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,241 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 Cheektowaga-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkCheektowaga sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides