Leeds, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Leeds, 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 Leeds 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 Leeds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leeds — the short answer
Leeds, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 591 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 591 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 Leeds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leeds's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Leeds's own 30-year record measures about 202 days between 28°F killing freezes — 45 days longer than Greene County's ~157. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Leeds's ~202-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leeds
Each reading below is measured for Leeds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeeds runs about 202 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
MeasuredLeeds 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 Leeds is in
Leeds sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leeds's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Greene County is mostly Northern Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Leeds
Every plant below cleared Leeds's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leeds?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Leeds
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Leeds, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leeds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leeds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYS THRUWAY AUTHBrownfields · 2600 ft
- CATSKILL MOTOR LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CATSKILL SECTION MAINT MP113.9Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STEWART'S SHOPS CORP #298Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GETTY #58797Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT RTE 23 EB OVER NYS THRUWAY I-87Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT RTE 23 WB OVER THE NYS THRUWAY - I87Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- NEW YORK STATE ARMORYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HOME DEPOTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CATSKILL XTRA MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOWN OF ATHENS HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MCCURRY PROPERTY (FORMER ATHENS AUTO)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leeds'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 Leeds.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leeds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leeds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leeds, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leeds — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Leeds
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 Leeds average
Your land is one point inside Leeds
Everything above resolves to Leeds as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Leeds Average
Leeds Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leeds
- ●One soil character for all of Leeds
- ●Frost dates read at Leeds's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leeds's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leeds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leeds, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leeds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leeds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leeds average
How we know this about Leeds
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 Leeds’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 Leeds
When does frost risk typically end in Leeds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leeds typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Leeds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leeds typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leeds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leeds sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leeds?
The federal record around Leeds is a meaningful one — 386 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (226), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Leeds?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leeds's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leeds'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 Leeds’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leeds's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 591 acres it covers and 386 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leeds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leeds's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 29 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 386 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leeds, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leeds's boundary and the 591 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Leeds sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leedslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leeds's 591 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leeds's 591 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leeds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 591 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Leeds-wide figureread your own land →