Hankins, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hankins, 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 Hankins 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 Hankins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hankins — the short answer
Hankins, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 879 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 879 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 Hankins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hankins's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hankins
Each reading below is measured for Hankins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHankins runs about 169 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
MeasuredHankins 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 Hankins is in
Hankins sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hankins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Hankins
Every plant below cleared Hankins's own zone 6a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hankins?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 17 — 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 Hankins
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Hankins, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hankins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hankins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LINDY'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HANKINS GARAGE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- VAN ETTEN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WINDSOR SULLIVAN PROPERTY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1091680Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- WN 341Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- DELAWARE VALLEY JOB CORPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SULLIVAN CO - COUNTY BRIDGE 276 BIN 3356650Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- WN 209Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- HOLY CROSS CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- KELLAM'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- TOWN OF FREMONT HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hankins'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 Hankins.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Hankins
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hankins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hankins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hankins, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Hankins. 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 Hankins
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 Hankins average
Your land is one point inside Hankins
Everything above resolves to Hankins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 879 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 Hankins Average
Hankins Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hankins
- ●One soil character for all of Hankins
- ●Frost dates read at Hankins's scale: May 1 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hankins's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hankins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hankins, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hankins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hankins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hankins average
How we know this about Hankins
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 Hankins’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 Hankins
When does frost risk typically end in Hankins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hankins 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 Hankins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hankins typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hankins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hankins sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 3, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hankins?
The federal record around Hankins shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hankins?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hankins's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hankins'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 Hankins’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hankins's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 879 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hankins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hankins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 17 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hankins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hankins's boundary and the 879 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hankins's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hankinslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hankins's 879 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hankins's 879 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hankins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 879 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Hankins-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides