Middleville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Middleville, 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 Middleville 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 Middleville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Middleville — the short answer
Middleville, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 490 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 490 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 Middleville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middleville's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middleville
Each reading below is measured for Middleville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddleville runs about 180 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
MeasuredMiddleville 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 Middleville is in
Middleville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Middleville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Herkimer County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Middleville
Every plant below cleared Middleville's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middleville?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Middleville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Middleville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Middleville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middleville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADIRONDACK COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- SNYDER FUEL SERVICE INC.-ASARO SERV. STA(SARO SEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- VILLAGE OF MIDDLEVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- STEWART'S SHOP #343Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- NORTH ILION CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GAY'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MIDDLEVILLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HE 685, NYNitrate · 0.5 mi
- HE 625Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- HE 248Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- WEST CANADA VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FAIRFIELD(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middleville'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 Middleville.
Total Sites
347
within ~10 miles of Middleville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middleville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middleville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middleville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Middleville — Superfund (11 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Middleville
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 Middleville average
Your land is one point inside Middleville
Everything above resolves to Middleville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 490 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 Middleville Average
Middleville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Middleville
- ●One soil character for all of Middleville
- ●Frost dates read at Middleville's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middleville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middleville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middleville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middleville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middleville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middleville average
How we know this about Middleville
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 Middleville’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 Middleville
When does frost risk typically end in Middleville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middleville typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Middleville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middleville typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middleville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middleville sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 8, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middleville?
The federal record around Middleville is a meaningful one — 347 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (191), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Middleville?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middleville's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middleville'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 Middleville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Middleville's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 490 acres it covers and 347 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middleville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middleville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 22 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 347 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middleville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middleville's boundary and the 490 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Middleville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Middleville 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 Middleville's 490 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Herkimer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Herkimer 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 Herkimer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middleville's 490 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middleville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 490 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 Middleville-wide figureread your own land →
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