New York Mills, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in New York Mills, 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 New York Mills 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 New York Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New York Mills — the short answer
New York Mills, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 755 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 755 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 New York Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New York Mills's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New York Mills
Each reading below is measured for New York Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew York Mills runs about 196 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
MeasuredNew York Mills 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 New York Mills is in
New York Mills sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New York Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oneida County.
What Grows in New York Mills
Every plant below cleared New York Mills's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New York Mills?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around New York Mills
Survey cells within 31 miles of New York Mills checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New York Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New York Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN PIETRYKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PEZDEK'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LANDMARK APARTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MOHAWK VALLEY KNITTING MACH.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MVK MACHINING SERVICESBrownfields · 1600 ft
- LALLY MFG. CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HY-WAY, INC. #1308Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MODY/FLEMMA FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CARBONE NISSANToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- BONIDE PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- USF RED STAR, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BONIDE CHEMICAL CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New York Mills'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 New York Mills.
Total Sites
1,026
within ~10 miles of New York Mills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New York Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New York Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New York Mills, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of New York Mills. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in New York Mills
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 New York Mills average
Your land is one point inside New York Mills
Everything above resolves to New York Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 755 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 New York Mills Average
New York Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New York Mills
- ●One soil character for all of New York Mills
- ●Frost dates read at New York Mills's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New York Mills's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New York Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New York Mills, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New York Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around New York Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New York Mills average
How we know this about New York Mills
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 New York Mills’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 New York Mills
When does frost risk typically end in New York Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New York Mills typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in New York Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New York Mills typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New York Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New York Mills sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 16, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New York Mills?
The federal record around New York Mills is a meaningful one — 1,026 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (605), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 New York Mills?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New York Mills's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New York Mills'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 New York Mills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New York Mills's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 755 acres it covers and 1,026 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New York Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New York Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 30 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,026 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New York Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New York Mills's boundary and the 755 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New York Mills's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around New York Mills 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 New York Mills's 755 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oneida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oneida 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 Oneida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New York Mills's 755 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New York Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 755 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 New York Mills-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides