Lime Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lime Lake, 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 Lime Lake 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 Lime Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lime Lake — the short answer
Lime Lake, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Lime Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lime Lake's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lime Lake
Each reading below is measured for Lime Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLime Lake runs about 159 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
MeasuredLime Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Lime Lake is in
Lime Lake sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lime Lake'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 Lime Lake
Every plant below cleared Lime Lake's own zone 5b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lime Lake?
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 Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Lime Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lime Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lime Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lime Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LIME LAKE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CATTARAUGUS COUNTY NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CT 568Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MACHIAS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MACHIAS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TOWN OF MACHIAS HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BOEHMER TRANSP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- C & J DAIRY FARMSCAFO · 1.7 mi
- JOHN O BEAMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CT1067Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- ALLAN BRITEWAY UTILITY - MACHIASBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- FREEDOM SAND & GRAVELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lime Lake'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 Lime Lake.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Lime Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lime Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lime Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lime Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lime Lake — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (64 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lime Lake
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 Lime Lake average
Your land is one point inside Lime Lake
Everything above resolves to Lime Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Lime Lake Average
Lime Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lime Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Lime Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Lime Lake's scale: May 7 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lime Lake's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lime Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lime Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lime Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lime Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lime Lake average
How we know this about Lime Lake
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 Lime Lake’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 Lime Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Lime Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lime Lake typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Lime Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lime Lake typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lime Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lime Lake sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 29, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lime Lake?
The federal record around Lime Lake shows 196 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lime Lake?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lime Lake's scale — its 5b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lime Lake'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 Lime Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lime Lake's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,522 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lime Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lime Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 13 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lime Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lime Lake's boundary and the 1,522 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lime Lake sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lime Lake checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lime Lake's 1,522 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 Lime Lake's 1,522 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lime Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,522 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lime Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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