Cumberland Head, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cumberland Head, 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 Cumberland Head 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 Cumberland Head — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cumberland Head — the short answer
Cumberland Head, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- 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 5a is Cumberland Head's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cumberland Head's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cumberland Head
Each reading below is measured for Cumberland Head itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCumberland Head runs about 189 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
MeasuredCumberland Head sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Cumberland Head is in
Cumberland Head sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cumberland Head's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Cumberland Head
Every plant below cleared Cumberland Head's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cumberland Head?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Cumberland Head
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cumberland Head checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 77 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cumberland Head
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cumberland Head. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUMBERLAND HEAD ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- B.C. WELL DRILLING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CL 200Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- DON'S MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CUMBERLAND BAY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BAY VIEW DAIRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CUMBERLAND BAY STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CUMBERLAND BAY SLUDGE BEDSuperfund · 1.6 mi
- C & L WELL DRILLING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- RILEY FORD INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- NORTH COUNTRY INDUSTRIAL CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MOUNTAIN MART #109, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cumberland Head'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 Cumberland Head.
Total Sites
410
within ~10 miles of Cumberland Head
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cumberland Head
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cumberland Head
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cumberland Head, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Cumberland Head. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Cumberland Head
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 Cumberland Head average
Your land is one point inside Cumberland Head
Everything above resolves to Cumberland Head 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 Cumberland Head Average
Cumberland Head Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cumberland Head
- ●One soil character for all of Cumberland Head
- ●Frost dates read at Cumberland Head's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cumberland Head's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cumberland Head
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cumberland Head, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cumberland Head averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cumberland Head — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cumberland Head average
How we know this about Cumberland Head
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 Cumberland Head’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 Cumberland Head
When does frost risk typically end in Cumberland Head?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland Head typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Cumberland Head?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland Head typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cumberland Head?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cumberland Head sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 12, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cumberland Head?
The federal record around Cumberland Head is a meaningful one — 410 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (217), 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 Cumberland Head?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cumberland Head's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cumberland Head'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 Cumberland Head’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cumberland Head's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,470 acres it covers and 410 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cumberland Head's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cumberland Head's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 26 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 410 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cumberland Head, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cumberland Head's boundary and the 2,470 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cumberland Head's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cumberland Head 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 Cumberland Head's 2,470 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cumberland Head's 2,470 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cumberland Head you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,470 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 Cumberland Head-wide figureread your own land →