Farnham, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Farnham, 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 Farnham 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 Farnham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Farnham — the short answer
Farnham, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 772 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 772 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 6b is Farnham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farnham's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farnham
Each reading below is measured for Farnham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarnham runs about 224 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFarnham sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Farnham is in
Farnham sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farnham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Farnham
Every plant below cleared Farnham's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farnham?
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 Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Farnham
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Farnham, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Farnham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farnham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14802Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- FARNHAM RADIO RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- E 151Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- GENESEE LEROY STONE CORP - PLANT 30Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- NYS THRUWAY AUTHORITY BIN 1045720Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- NYS OPRHP - EVANGOLA STATE PARKBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- ANGOLA SERVICE AREA RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NATIVE PRIDEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 6600030Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- EVANGOLA STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TOWN OF BRANT HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1061120Brownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farnham'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 Farnham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farnham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farnham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farnham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Farnham — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Farnham
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 Farnham average
Your land is one point inside Farnham
Everything above resolves to Farnham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 772 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 Farnham Average
Farnham Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Farnham
- ●One soil character for all of Farnham
- ●Frost dates read at Farnham's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farnham's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farnham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farnham, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farnham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farnham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farnham average
How we know this about Farnham
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 Farnham’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 Farnham
When does frost risk typically end in Farnham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farnham typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Farnham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farnham typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farnham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farnham sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Nov 6, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farnham?
The federal record around Farnham is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Brownfields 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 Farnham?
From about Oct 21 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 Nov 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 Nov 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farnham's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farnham'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 Farnham’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Farnham's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 772 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farnham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farnham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 20 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farnham, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farnham's boundary and the 772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farnham's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Farnhamlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Farnham's 772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farnham's 772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farnham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Farnham-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkFarnham sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides