High Falls, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in High Falls, 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 High Falls 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 High Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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High Falls — the short answer
High Falls, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~194
- 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 6b is High Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against High Falls's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in High Falls
Each reading below is measured for High Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHigh Falls runs about 194 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
MeasuredHigh Falls 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 High Falls is in
High Falls sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at High Falls's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ulster County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in High Falls
Every plant below cleared High Falls's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in High Falls?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. 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 High Falls
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from High Falls, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near High Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of High Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOUR CORNERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- U 246Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SPECTRUM VIDEO BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JAKESBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- U 257Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MOHONK ROAD INDUSTRIAL PLANTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MOHONK ROAD INDUSTRIAL PLANTSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- U2992Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- ULSTER COUNTY COXING BRIDGEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- U 269Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- NEW YORK TELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HERITAGENERGY-HIGH FALLS PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from High Falls'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 High Falls.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of High Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of High Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around High Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 307 sites within ~10 miles of High Falls. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in High Falls
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 High Falls average
Your land is one point inside High Falls
Everything above resolves to High Falls 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 High Falls Average
High Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across High Falls
- ●One soil character for all of High Falls
- ●Frost dates read at High Falls's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not High Falls's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in High Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in High Falls, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that High Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around High Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the High Falls average
How we know this about High Falls
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 High Falls’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 High Falls
When does frost risk typically end in High Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in High Falls typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in High Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in High Falls 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 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in High Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, High Falls sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 10, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in High Falls?
The federal record around High Falls is a meaningful one — 457 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (307), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 High Falls?
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 High Falls's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of High Falls'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 High Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at High Falls's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,082 acres it covers and 457 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- High Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- High Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 24 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 457 documented contamination sites on the federal record near High Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- High Falls's boundary and the 1,082 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- High Falls sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of High Fallslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so High Falls's 1,082 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ulster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ulster 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 Ulster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among High Falls's 1,082 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of High Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,082 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 High Falls-wide figureread your own land →