Eagle Bay, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Eagle Bay, 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 Eagle Bay 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 Eagle Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eagle Bay — the short answer
Eagle Bay, New York: USDA zone 4a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 177 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 177 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 4a is Eagle Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle Bay's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagle Bay
Each reading below is measured for Eagle Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagle Bay runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEagle Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Eagle Bay is in
Eagle Bay sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Eagle Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Herkimer County.
What Grows in Eagle Bay
Every plant below cleared Eagle Bay's own zone 4a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagle Bay?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around Eagle Bay
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Eagle Bay, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Eagle Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagle Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSDOT BIN 7715370Brownfields · 450 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 7715300Brownfields · 450 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 7715360Brownfields · 450 ft
- HE 78Nitrate · 500 ft
- THIBADO'S PIT STOP (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- JOHN EVANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ESTATE OF PETER D. STEELEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LONG POND CAMP (LAKE DUANE)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- THE LAST STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TRI JAMES SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ELMER RANDALL TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GREGORYS HILLTOP STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagle Bay'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 Eagle Bay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eagle Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagle Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagle Bay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Eagle Bay — Nitrate (48 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (90 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Eagle Bay
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 Eagle Bay average
Your land is one point inside Eagle Bay
Everything above resolves to Eagle Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 177 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 Eagle Bay Average
Eagle Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Eagle Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle Bay's scale: May 12 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle Bay's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagle Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle Bay, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle Bay average
How we know this about Eagle Bay
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 Eagle Bay’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 Eagle Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Bay typically lands around May 12, 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 Jun 2.
When is the first frost in Eagle Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Bay typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagle Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle Bay sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 23, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle Bay?
The federal record around Eagle Bay shows 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Eagle Bay?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Eagle Bay rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Eagle Bay's scale — its 4a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle Bay'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 Eagle Bay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Eagle Bay's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 177 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Oct 7 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagle Bay, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagle Bay's boundary and the 177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eagle Bay's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Eagle Baylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eagle Bay's 177 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Herkimer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Herkimer 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 Herkimer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagle Bay's 177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagle Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Eagle Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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