Edwards, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Edwards, 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 Edwards 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 Edwards — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edwards — the short answer
Edwards, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 592 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 592 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 4b is Edwards's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edwards's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edwards
Each reading below is measured for Edwards itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdwards runs about 178 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
MeasuredEdwards sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Edwards is in
Edwards sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Edwards's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Lawrence County.
What Grows in Edwards
Every plant below cleared Edwards's own zone 4b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edwards?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Edwards
Survey cells within 31 miles of Edwards checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 63 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edwards
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edwards. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CRANESVILLE AGGREGATES CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TRESIDDER'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EDWARDS(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NYSDOT BRIDGE NU BIN 1027470Brownfields · 1700 ft
- ST1411Nitrate · 1700 ft
- ST1420Nitrate · 1800 ft
- JIMS AUTOBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK - MINE ROAD SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Edwards MineMining · 1.1 mi
- Mc Gill OccurrenceMining · 1.4 mi
- Webb Zinc DepositMining · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edwards'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 Edwards.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Edwards
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edwards
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edwards
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edwards, Mining runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Edwards. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Edwards
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 Edwards average
Your land is one point inside Edwards
Everything above resolves to Edwards as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 592 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 Edwards Average
Edwards Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Edwards
- ●One soil character for all of Edwards
- ●Frost dates read at Edwards's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edwards's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edwards
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edwards, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edwards averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edwards — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edwards average
How we know this about Edwards
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 Edwards’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 Edwards
When does frost risk typically end in Edwards?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edwards typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Edwards?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edwards typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edwards?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edwards sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 6, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edwards?
The federal record around Edwards is a meaningful one — 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Edwards?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edwards's scale — its 4b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edwards'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 Edwards’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Edwards's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 592 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edwards's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edwards's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 20 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edwards, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edwards's boundary and the 592 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edwards's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Edwards 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 Edwards's 592 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edwards's 592 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edwards you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 592 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Edwards-wide figureread your own land →