Orchard Park, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Orchard Park, 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 Orchard Park 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 Orchard Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orchard Park — the short answer
Orchard Park, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 865 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 865 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 Orchard Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orchard Park's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orchard Park
Each reading below is measured for Orchard Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrchard Park runs about 199 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
MeasuredOrchard Park 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 Orchard Park is in
Orchard Park sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orchard Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Orchard Park
Every plant below cleared Orchard Park's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orchard Park?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Orchard Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Orchard Park, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orchard Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orchard Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORCHARD PARK PUBLIC LIBRARYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- ORCHARD PARK POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BAUER SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TOWN OF ORCHARD PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ORCHARD PARK CSD BUILDINGS & GROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ORCHARD PARK MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ORCHARD PARK MIDDLE SCHBrownfields · 1900 ft
- VILLAGE OF ORCHARD PARK D.P.W.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JERRY BROOKINS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1063000Brownfields · 2300 ft
- PLASTICS ACQUISITIONS INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VCNA UNITED MATERIALS - ORCHARD PARK FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orchard Park'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 Orchard Park.
Total Sites
1,328
within ~10 miles of Orchard Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
24 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orchard Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orchard Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orchard Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orchard Park — Superfund (24 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (101 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Orchard Park
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 Orchard Park average
Your land is one point inside Orchard Park
Everything above resolves to Orchard Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 865 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 Orchard Park Average
Orchard Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Orchard Park
- ●One soil character for all of Orchard Park
- ●Frost dates read at Orchard Park's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orchard Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orchard Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orchard Park, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orchard Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orchard Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orchard Park average
How we know this about Orchard Park
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 Orchard Park’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 Orchard Park
When does frost risk typically end in Orchard Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard Park typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Orchard Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard Park 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orchard Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orchard Park sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 21, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orchard Park?
The federal record around Orchard Park is a meaningful one — 1,328 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (630), the nearest Brownfields 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 Orchard Park?
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 Orchard Park's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orchard Park'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 Orchard Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orchard Park's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 865 acres it covers and 1,328 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orchard Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orchard Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 4 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,328 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orchard Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orchard Park's boundary and the 865 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orchard Park's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orchard Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orchard Park's 865 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orchard Park's 865 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orchard Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 865 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Orchard Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkOrchard Park sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides