Evans Mills, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — 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 Evans 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 Evans 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 Evans Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Evans Mills — the short answer
Evans Mills, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 523 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 523 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 Evans Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Evans Mills's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Evans Mills
Each reading below is measured for Evans Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEvans Mills runs about 188 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
MeasuredEvans Mills 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 Evans Mills is in
Evans Mills sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Evans Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Evans Mills
Every plant below cleared Evans Mills's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Evans Mills?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Evans Mills
Survey cells within 31 miles of Evans Mills checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 72 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Evans Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Evans Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EVANS MILLS PRIMARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS CORP. #442Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LERAY(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- EVANS MILLS AGWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- J 175Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- THOMPSON FARM PROPERTYCAFO · 1.8 mi
- US ARMY FORT DRUMBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- US ARMY FORT DRUMToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- U.S. ARMY FORT DRUM GARRISON CANTONMENT AREAToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTER 6055 @FORT DRUMBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9782Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #40487Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Evans 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 Evans Mills.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Evans Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Evans Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Evans Mills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Evans Mills — CAFO (6 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Evans 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 Evans Mills average
Your land is one point inside Evans Mills
Everything above resolves to Evans Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 523 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 Evans Mills Average
Evans Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Evans Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Evans Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Evans Mills's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Evans Mills's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Evans Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Evans Mills, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Evans Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Evans Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Evans Mills average
How we know this about Evans 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 Evans 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 Evans Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Evans Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Evans Mills typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Evans Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Evans Mills typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Evans Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Evans Mills sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 10, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Evans Mills?
The federal record around Evans Mills is a meaningful one — 345 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (171), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Evans Mills?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Evans Mills's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Evans 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 Evans Mills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Evans Mills's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 523 acres it covers and 345 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Evans Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Evans Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 24 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 345 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Evans Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Evans Mills's boundary and the 523 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Evans Mills's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Evans 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 Evans Mills's 523 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Evans Mills's 523 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Evans 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 523 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Evans Mills-wide figureread your own land →