Holley, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Holley, 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 Holley 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 Holley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holley — the short answer
Holley, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 812 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 812 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 Holley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holley's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holley
Each reading below is measured for Holley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHolley runs about 210 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
MeasuredHolley 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 Holley is in
Holley sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orleans County.
What Grows in Holley
Every plant below cleared Holley's own zone 6b and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Holley
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Holley, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Holley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DIAZ CHEMICAL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- DIAZ CHEMICALSuperfund · 650 ft
- DIAZ CHEMICALBrownfields · 650 ft
- DIAZ CHEMICALToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- OL 17Nitrate · 1000 ft
- HOLLEY VILLAGE OF POLICE DEPTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- JOHN MURPHY ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KROZEL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NYS DOT RIGHT OF WAY (ROUTE 31)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CADBURY BEVERAGES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CROSBY'S HOLLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HOLLEY VILLAGE OFBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holley'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 Holley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Holley — CAFO (6 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Holley
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 Holley average
Your land is one point inside Holley
Everything above resolves to Holley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 812 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 Holley Average
Holley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Holley
- ●One soil character for all of Holley
- ●Frost dates read at Holley's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holley, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holley average
How we know this about Holley
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 Holley’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 Holley
When does frost risk typically end in Holley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holley typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Holley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holley typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holley sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 25, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holley?
The federal record around Holley is a meaningful one — 279 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Holley?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holley's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holley'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 Holley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Holley's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 812 acres it covers and 279 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 8 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 279 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holley's boundary and the 812 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holley's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Holleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holley's 812 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orleans County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orleans 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 Orleans County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holley's 812 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 812 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 Holley-wide figureread your own land →
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