Elizabethtown, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elizabethtown, 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 Elizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elizabethtown — the short answer
Elizabethtown, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- 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 Elizabethtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elizabethtown's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elizabethtown
Each reading below is measured for Elizabethtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElizabethtown runs about 165 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
MeasuredElizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown is in
Elizabethtown sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Elizabethtown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Elizabethtown
Every plant below cleared Elizabethtown's own zone 5a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elizabethtown?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Elizabethtown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Elizabethtown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elizabethtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CROSS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TOWN OF ELIZABETHTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EGGLEFIELD BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ESSEX COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELIZABETHTOWN SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ESSEX CENTER FOR REHABILITATION AND HEALTHCAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ELIZABETHTOWN COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP #160Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ESSEX COUNTY OFBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ED BLASK FORD (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELIZABETHTOWN-LEWIS CTR SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elizabethtown'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 Elizabethtown.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elizabethtown, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elizabethtown
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 Elizabethtown average
Your land is one point inside Elizabethtown
Everything above resolves to Elizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown Average
Elizabethtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Elizabethtown
- ●One soil character for all of Elizabethtown
- ●Frost dates read at Elizabethtown's scale: May 1 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elizabethtown's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elizabethtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elizabethtown, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elizabethtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elizabethtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elizabethtown average
How we know this about Elizabethtown
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 Elizabethtown’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 Elizabethtown
When does frost risk typically end in Elizabethtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabethtown typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Elizabethtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabethtown typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elizabethtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elizabethtown sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 29, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elizabethtown?
The federal record around Elizabethtown is a meaningful one — 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Elizabethtown?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elizabethtown's scale — its 5a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elizabethtown'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 Elizabethtown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elizabethtown's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,115 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elizabethtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elizabethtown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 13 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elizabethtown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elizabethtown's boundary and the 2,115 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elizabethtown's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Elizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown's 2,115 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elizabethtown's 2,115 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elizabethtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,115 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Elizabethtown-wide figureread your own land →