Mattydale, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Mattydale, 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 Mattydale 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 Mattydale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mattydale — the short answer
Mattydale, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Mattydale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mattydale's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mattydale
Each reading below is measured for Mattydale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMattydale runs about 206 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
MeasuredMattydale 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 Mattydale is in
Mattydale sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mattydale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Onondaga County.
What Grows in Mattydale
Every plant below cleared Mattydale's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mattydale?
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 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 4 — 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 Mattydale
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mattydale, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mattydale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mattydale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BYRNE DAIRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KEY BANK #3095Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SUCHON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BIG LOTS #1217Brownfields · 1900 ft
- ROXBORO ELEMENTARY/MIDDLE SCHSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ADVANCED AUTOMOTIVE CENTER, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DBA RITE AID #10762Brownfields · 2500 ft
- FORMER VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGE 2-03Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MATTYDALE PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EXPRESS MART #328Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PETROLEUM PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGY INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TOWN OF SALINA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mattydale'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 Mattydale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mattydale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mattydale
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Mattydale
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 Mattydale average
Your land is one point inside Mattydale
Everything above resolves to Mattydale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mattydale Average
Mattydale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mattydale
- ●One soil character for all of Mattydale
- ●Frost dates read at Mattydale's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mattydale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mattydale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mattydale, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mattydale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mattydale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mattydale average
How we know this about Mattydale
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 Mattydale’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 Mattydale
When does frost risk typically end in Mattydale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mattydale 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 Mattydale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mattydale typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mattydale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mattydale sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 21, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mattydale?
The federal record around Mattydale is a meaningful one — 1,969 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (964), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mattydale?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mattydale's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mattydale'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 Mattydale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mattydale's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,229 acres it covers and 1,969 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mattydale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mattydale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 4 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,969 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mattydale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mattydale's boundary and the 1,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mattydale's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mattydalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mattydale's 1,229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Onondaga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Onondaga 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 Onondaga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mattydale's 1,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mattydale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,229 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mattydale-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkMattydale sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides