Mexico, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mexico, 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 Mexico 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 Mexico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mexico — the short answer
Mexico, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- 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 5b is Mexico's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mexico's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mexico
Each reading below is measured for Mexico itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMexico runs about 203 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
MeasuredMexico 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 Mexico is in
Mexico sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mexico's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oswego County.
What Grows in Mexico
Every plant below cleared Mexico's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mexico?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Mexico
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Mexico, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mexico
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mexico. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FORMER WATSON GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KINNEY DRUGS STORE #47Brownfields · 2000 ft
- LEO J. KESSELRING PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GRANDMA BROWNS BEANS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FASTRAC MARKET #219Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KWIK FILL MO400 / 400Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FASTRAC 219Brownfields · 2300 ft
- KWIK-FILL #M0057-004Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6437Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SCENIC AVE. GAS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mexico'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 Mexico.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Mexico
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mexico
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mexico
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mexico, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 89 sites within ~10 miles of Mexico. 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 Mexico
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 Mexico average
Your land is one point inside Mexico
Everything above resolves to Mexico 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 Mexico Average
Mexico Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Mexico
- ●One soil character for all of Mexico
- ●Frost dates read at Mexico's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mexico's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mexico
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mexico, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mexico averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mexico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mexico average
How we know this about Mexico
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 Mexico’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 Mexico
When does frost risk typically end in Mexico?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mexico typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Mexico?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mexico typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mexico?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mexico sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 22, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mexico?
The federal record around Mexico shows 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Mexico?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mexico's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mexico'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 Mexico’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mexico's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,373 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mexico's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mexico's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 5 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mexico, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mexico's boundary and the 1,373 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mexico's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mexicolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mexico's 1,373 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oswego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oswego 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 Oswego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mexico's 1,373 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mexico you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,373 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Mexico-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkMexico sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides