Clark Mills, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clark Mills, 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 Clark Mills 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 Clark Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clark Mills — the short answer
Clark Mills, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 955 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 955 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 Clark Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clark Mills's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clark Mills
Each reading below is measured for Clark Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClark Mills runs about 196 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
MeasuredClark Mills 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 Clark Mills is in
Clark Mills sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clark Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oneida County.
What Grows in Clark Mills
Every plant below cleared Clark Mills's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clark Mills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Clark Mills
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clark Mills checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clark Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clark Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BYRNE DAIRY - KIRKLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WINNS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CAR CONNECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROME TURNEY RADIATOR CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DAWES FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FORMER TOM'S SMALL ENGINE & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CLARK MILLS CORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WINN'S AUTO SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCHMIDT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- YANDO'S AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KIRKLAND CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- J.H. LENAHAN & SONS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clark Mills'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 Clark Mills.
Total Sites
1,177
within ~10 miles of Clark Mills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clark Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clark Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clark Mills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clark Mills — CAFO (13 sites) and Superfund (19 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Clark Mills
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 Clark Mills average
Your land is one point inside Clark Mills
Everything above resolves to Clark Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 955 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 Clark Mills Average
Clark Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Clark Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Clark Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Clark Mills's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clark Mills's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clark Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clark Mills, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clark Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clark Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clark Mills average
How we know this about Clark Mills
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 Clark Mills’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 Clark Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Clark Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clark Mills typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Clark Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clark Mills typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clark Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clark Mills sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 16, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clark Mills?
The federal record around Clark Mills is a meaningful one — 1,177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (698), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Clark Mills?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clark Mills's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clark Mills'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 Clark Mills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clark Mills's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 955 acres it covers and 1,177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clark Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clark Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 30 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clark Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clark Mills's boundary and the 955 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clark Mills's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Clark Mills checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clark Mills's 955 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 Clark Mills's 955 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clark Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 955 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Clark Mills-wide figureread your own land →
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