Gowanda, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gowanda, 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 Gowanda 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 Gowanda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gowanda — the short answer
Gowanda, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- 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 6a is Gowanda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gowanda's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gowanda
Each reading below is measured for Gowanda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGowanda runs about 200 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
MeasuredGowanda sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Gowanda is in
Gowanda sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gowanda's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cattaraugus County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gowanda
Every plant below cleared Gowanda's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gowanda?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Gowanda
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Gowanda, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gowanda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gowanda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW YORK TELEPHONE COBrownfields · 550 ft
- VILLAGE OF GOWANDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- VILLAGE OF GOWANDA HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- GOWANDA ELECTRONICS CORPBrownfields · 950 ft
- MATTCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HAR-SON MFG INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GOWANDA DAY HABILITATION CENTER-WNYDDSOBrownfields · 1300 ft
- RITE AID #1649Brownfields · 1300 ft
- NEW YORK TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CT 493Nitrate · 1900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 4520Brownfields · 1900 ft
- PETER COOPERSuperfund · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gowanda'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 Gowanda.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gowanda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gowanda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gowanda, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gowanda — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gowanda
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 Gowanda average
Your land is one point inside Gowanda
Everything above resolves to Gowanda 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 Gowanda Average
Gowanda Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gowanda
- ●One soil character for all of Gowanda
- ●Frost dates read at Gowanda's scale: Apr 18 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gowanda's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gowanda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gowanda, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gowanda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gowanda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gowanda average
How we know this about Gowanda
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 Gowanda’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 Gowanda
When does frost risk typically end in Gowanda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gowanda typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Gowanda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gowanda typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gowanda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gowanda sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 21, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gowanda?
The federal record around Gowanda is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Brownfields 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 Gowanda?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gowanda's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gowanda'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 Gowanda’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gowanda's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,020 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gowanda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gowanda's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Nov 4 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gowanda, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gowanda's boundary and the 1,020 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gowanda sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gowandalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gowanda's 1,020 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cattaraugus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gowanda's 1,020 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gowanda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,020 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Gowanda-wide figureread your own land →
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