Smallwood, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Smallwood, 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 Smallwood 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 Smallwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smallwood — the short answer
Smallwood, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Smallwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smallwood's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smallwood
Each reading below is measured for Smallwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmallwood runs about 178 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
MeasuredSmallwood 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 Smallwood is in
Smallwood sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Smallwood's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sullivan County is mostly Northern Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Smallwood
Every plant below cleared Smallwood's own zone 6a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smallwood?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Smallwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Smallwood, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smallwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smallwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SV 527Nitrate · 650 ft
- OLD MONGAUP INC DBA SWINGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OTTO'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CLEMENTE LATHAM BRIDGEVILLE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14321Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- NARYAN CORP - 17B QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ULTRA POWER FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- GENE'S BOATS/WHITE LAKE MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LOZ CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GULF IDEAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 811 STARLIGHT ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- TOWN OF BETHELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smallwood'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 Smallwood.
Total Sites
257
within ~10 miles of Smallwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smallwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smallwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smallwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smallwood — CAFO (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (184 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Smallwood
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 Smallwood average
Your land is one point inside Smallwood
Everything above resolves to Smallwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Smallwood Average
Smallwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Smallwood
- ●One soil character for all of Smallwood
- ●Frost dates read at Smallwood's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smallwood's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smallwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smallwood, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smallwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smallwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smallwood average
How we know this about Smallwood
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 Smallwood’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 Smallwood
When does frost risk typically end in Smallwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smallwood typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Smallwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smallwood typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smallwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smallwood sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 5, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smallwood?
The federal record around Smallwood is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (184), the nearest Nitrate 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 Smallwood?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smallwood's scale — its 6a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smallwood'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 Smallwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smallwood's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,538 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smallwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smallwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 19 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smallwood, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smallwood's boundary and the 1,538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Smallwood sits in the North Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smallwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smallwood's 1,538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smallwood's 1,538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smallwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,538 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Smallwood-wide figureread your own land →
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