Gouverneur, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gouverneur, 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 Gouverneur 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 Gouverneur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gouverneur — the short answer
Gouverneur, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Gouverneur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gouverneur's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gouverneur
Each reading below is measured for Gouverneur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGouverneur runs about 170 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
MeasuredGouverneur 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 Gouverneur is in
Gouverneur sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gouverneur's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Lawrence County.
What Grows in Gouverneur
Every plant below cleared Gouverneur's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gouverneur?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Gouverneur
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gouverneur 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 Gouverneur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gouverneur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NICK & FRANCESCA CIAMBRAUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SUGAR CREEK #596Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GOUVERNEUR CO-OPERATIVE ASSOC. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ST. JAMES SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- RAINBOW VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ST. JAMES CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GOUVERNEUR SAVINGS AND LOANUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HEALTHDIRECT PHARMACY SERVICES #05Brownfields · 800 ft
- NEW YORK TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VERIZON (NY 25632)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GOUVERNEUR(V) DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gouverneur'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 Gouverneur.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Gouverneur
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gouverneur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gouverneur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gouverneur, Mining runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Gouverneur. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Gouverneur
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 Gouverneur average
Your land is one point inside Gouverneur
Everything above resolves to Gouverneur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Gouverneur Average
Gouverneur Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Gouverneur
- ●One soil character for all of Gouverneur
- ●Frost dates read at Gouverneur's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gouverneur's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gouverneur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gouverneur, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gouverneur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gouverneur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gouverneur average
How we know this about Gouverneur
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 Gouverneur’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 Gouverneur
When does frost risk typically end in Gouverneur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gouverneur typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Gouverneur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gouverneur typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gouverneur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gouverneur sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gouverneur?
The federal record around Gouverneur runs heavier than most — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gouverneur?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gouverneur's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gouverneur'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 Gouverneur’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gouverneur's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,403 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gouverneur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gouverneur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 15 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gouverneur, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gouverneur's boundary and the 1,403 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gouverneur's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gouverneur 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 Gouverneur's 1,403 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 Gouverneur's 1,403 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gouverneur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,403 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gouverneur-wide figureread your own land →