Saugerties, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Saugerties, 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 Saugerties 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 Saugerties — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Saugerties — the short answer
Saugerties, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- 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 6a is Saugerties's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saugerties's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saugerties
Each reading below is measured for Saugerties itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaugerties runs about 198 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
MeasuredSaugerties 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 Saugerties is in
Saugerties sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Saugerties's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ulster County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Saugerties
Every plant below cleared Saugerties's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saugerties?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Saugerties
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Saugerties, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Saugerties
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saugerties. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VILLAGE OF SAUGERTIES WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- US COAST GUARD AIDS TO NAVIGATION TEAM SAUGERTIESSuperfund · 1100 ft
- LYNCH MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ST MARY OF THE SNOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SAUGERTIES MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SAUGERTIES PUBLIC LIBRARYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NYS DOT BIN 1007370 RTE 9W OVER ESOPUS CREEKBrownfields · 2500 ft
- UNIFORMS USA, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EMANUELE SAVONAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STEWART'S SHOPS #235Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SAUGERTIES REFORMED CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FLANIGAN'S CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saugerties'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 Saugerties.
Total Sites
431
within ~10 miles of Saugerties
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saugerties
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saugerties
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saugerties, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Saugerties — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (271 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Saugerties
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 Saugerties average
Your land is one point inside Saugerties
Everything above resolves to Saugerties 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 Saugerties Average
Saugerties Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Saugerties
- ●One soil character for all of Saugerties
- ●Frost dates read at Saugerties's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saugerties's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saugerties
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saugerties, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saugerties averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saugerties — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saugerties average
How we know this about Saugerties
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 Saugerties’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 Saugerties
When does frost risk typically end in Saugerties?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saugerties typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Saugerties?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saugerties typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saugerties?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saugerties sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saugerties?
The federal record around Saugerties is a meaningful one — 431 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (271), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Saugerties?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saugerties's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saugerties'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 Saugerties’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Saugerties's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,142 acres it covers and 431 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saugerties's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saugerties's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 431 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saugerties, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saugerties's boundary and the 1,142 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Saugerties sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Saugertieslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saugerties's 1,142 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ulster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ulster 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 Ulster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saugerties's 1,142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saugerties you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,142 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Saugerties-wide figureread your own land →