Lyon Mountain, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lyon Mountain, 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 Lyon Mountain 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 Lyon Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lyon Mountain — the short answer
Lyon Mountain, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 4b is Lyon Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lyon Mountain's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lyon Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Lyon Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLyon Mountain runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLyon Mountain sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Lyon Mountain is in
Lyon Mountain sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lyon Mountain's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clinton County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lyon Mountain
Every plant below cleared Lyon Mountain's own zone 4b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lyon Mountain?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
Documented around Lyon Mountain
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lyon Mountain checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lyon Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lyon Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DANNEMORA QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NOEL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CL1500Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- IRON ORE MARKET LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LYON MOUNTAIN INDUSTRIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TOLBERT MINESHAFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TOWN OF DANNEMORA-HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- CL 88Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- CL 87Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- CL 723Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- CL 946Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP #207Underground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lyon Mountain'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 Lyon Mountain.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Lyon Mountain
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lyon Mountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lyon Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lyon Mountain, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Lyon Mountain. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Lyon Mountain
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 Lyon Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Lyon Mountain
Everything above resolves to Lyon Mountain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Lyon Mountain Average
Lyon Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lyon Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Lyon Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Lyon Mountain's scale: May 11 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lyon Mountain's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lyon Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lyon Mountain, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lyon Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lyon Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lyon Mountain average
How we know this about Lyon Mountain
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 Lyon Mountain’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 Lyon Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Lyon Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lyon Mountain typically lands around May 11, 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 Jun 1.
When is the first frost in Lyon Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lyon Mountain typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lyon Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lyon Mountain sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 22, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lyon Mountain?
The federal record around Lyon Mountain shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 gardeners stretch the season in Lyon Mountain?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lyon Mountain rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lyon Mountain's scale — its 4b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lyon Mountain'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 Lyon Mountain’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lyon Mountain's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,728 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lyon Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lyon Mountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 6 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lyon Mountain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lyon Mountain's boundary and the 6,728 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lyon Mountain sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lyon Mountain 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 Lyon Mountain's 6,728 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lyon Mountain's 6,728 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lyon Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,728 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lyon Mountain-wide figureread your own land →