Margaretville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Margaretville, 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 Margaretville 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 Margaretville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Margaretville — the short answer
Margaretville, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 445 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 445 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 Margaretville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Margaretville's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Margaretville
Each reading below is measured for Margaretville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMargaretville runs about 155 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
MeasuredMargaretville 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 Margaretville is in
Margaretville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Margaretville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Margaretville
Every plant below cleared Margaretville's own zone 5b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Margaretville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Margaretville
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Margaretville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Margaretville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Margaretville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARGARETVILLE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MARGARETVILLE CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CATSKILL MOUNTAIN CHRISTIAN CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MRS ROSWELL SANFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #11789Brownfields · 1000 ft
- TOWN OF MIDDLETOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NBT BANK, NAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5013Brownfields · 1300 ft
- MARGARETVILLE QUICKWAY NO. 31Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MARGARETVILLE MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MARGARETVILLE FIRE HALL & GARUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NYCDEP MARGARETTEVILLE WWTPBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Margaretville'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 Margaretville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Margaretville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Margaretville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Margaretville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Margaretville. 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 Margaretville
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 Margaretville average
Your land is one point inside Margaretville
Everything above resolves to Margaretville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 445 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 Margaretville Average
Margaretville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Margaretville
- ●One soil character for all of Margaretville
- ●Frost dates read at Margaretville's scale: May 8 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Margaretville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Margaretville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Margaretville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Margaretville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Margaretville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Margaretville average
How we know this about Margaretville
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 Margaretville’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 Margaretville
When does frost risk typically end in Margaretville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Margaretville typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Margaretville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Margaretville typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Margaretville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Margaretville sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 26, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Margaretville?
The federal record around Margaretville shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Margaretville?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Margaretville's scale — its 5b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Margaretville'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 Margaretville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Margaretville's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 445 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Margaretville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Margaretville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 10 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Margaretville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Margaretville's boundary and the 445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Margaretville's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Margaretvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Margaretville's 445 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Margaretville's 445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Margaretville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 445 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 Margaretville-wide figureread your own land →
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