Cherry Creek, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cherry Creek, 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 Cherry Creek 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 Cherry Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cherry Creek — the short answer
Cherry Creek, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 872 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 872 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 Cherry Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cherry Creek's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cherry Creek
Each reading below is measured for Cherry Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCherry Creek runs about 184 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
MeasuredCherry Creek 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 Cherry Creek is in
Cherry Creek sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cherry Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chautauqua County.
What Grows in Cherry Creek
Every plant below cleared Cherry Creek's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cherry Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Cherry Creek
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Cherry Creek, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cherry Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cherry Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHRISTIAN CENTER A/GUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- TOWN OF CHERRY CREEK HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CU3154, NYNitrate · 1800 ft
- FROST BUILDERS SUPPLIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CU1951Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- C H COLVIN INC TRUCK SHOP SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- STEUBEN RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- NOBLES FARMCAFO · 2.8 mi
- PINE VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY BRIDGE 1098Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- PIMMS VIEW FARMCAFO · 3.3 mi
- CATHERINE ERWINUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cherry Creek'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 Cherry Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cherry Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cherry Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cherry Creek, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Cherry Creek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Cherry Creek
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 Cherry Creek average
Your land is one point inside Cherry Creek
Everything above resolves to Cherry Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 872 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 Cherry Creek Average
Cherry Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cherry Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Cherry Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Cherry Creek's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cherry Creek's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cherry Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cherry Creek, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cherry Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cherry Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cherry Creek average
How we know this about Cherry Creek
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 Cherry Creek’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 Cherry Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Cherry Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Creek typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cherry Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Creek 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cherry Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cherry Creek sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 15, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cherry Creek?
The federal record around Cherry Creek is a meaningful one — 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), 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 Cherry Creek?
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 Cherry Creek's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cherry Creek'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 Cherry Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cherry Creek's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 872 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cherry Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cherry Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 29 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cherry Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cherry Creek's boundary and the 872 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cherry Creek's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cherry Creeklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cherry Creek's 872 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chautauqua County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chautauqua 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 Chautauqua County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cherry Creek's 872 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cherry Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 872 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 Cherry Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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