Oxbow, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Oxbow, 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 Oxbow 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 Oxbow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oxbow — the short answer
Oxbow, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 259 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 259 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 4b is Oxbow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oxbow's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oxbow
Each reading below is measured for Oxbow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOxbow runs about 185 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
MeasuredOxbow sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Oxbow is in
Oxbow sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oxbow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Oxbow
Every plant below cleared Oxbow's own zone 4b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oxbow?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Oxbow
Survey cells within 31 miles of Oxbow checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 77 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oxbow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oxbow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J2146Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- KEARNEY BRIDGEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Victoria MineMining · 4.8 mi
- ROSSIE(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Coal Hill MineMining · 4.8 mi
- Coal Hill DepositMining · 4.9 mi
- Victoria West MineMining · 5.0 mi
- P L PICKERT & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Unnamed OccurrenceMining · 5.0 mi
- Victoria East MineMining · 5.1 mi
- North MineMining · 5.2 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oxbow'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 Oxbow.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Oxbow
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oxbow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oxbow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oxbow, Mining runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Oxbow. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Oxbow
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 Oxbow average
Your land is one point inside Oxbow
Everything above resolves to Oxbow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 259 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 Oxbow Average
Oxbow Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Oxbow
- ●One soil character for all of Oxbow
- ●Frost dates read at Oxbow's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oxbow's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oxbow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oxbow, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oxbow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oxbow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oxbow average
How we know this about Oxbow
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 Oxbow’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 Oxbow
When does frost risk typically end in Oxbow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oxbow typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Oxbow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oxbow typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oxbow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oxbow sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 11, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oxbow?
The federal record around Oxbow runs heavier than most — 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Oxbow?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oxbow's scale — its 4b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oxbow'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 Oxbow’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oxbow's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 259 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oxbow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oxbow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 25 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oxbow, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oxbow's boundary and the 259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oxbow's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Oxbow 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 Oxbow's 259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oxbow's 259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oxbow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Oxbow-wide figureread your own land →