Springville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Springville, 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 Springville 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 Springville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Springville — the short answer
Springville, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- 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 5b is Springville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Springville's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Springville
Each reading below is measured for Springville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpringville runs about 173 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
MeasuredSpringville 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 Springville is in
Springville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Springville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Erie County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Springville
Every plant below cleared Springville's own zone 5b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Springville?
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 Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Springville
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Springville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Springville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Springville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW YORK TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- RITE AID #3838Brownfields · 250 ft
- ROBERT BECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VILLAGE OF SPRINGVILLEBrownfields · 550 ft
- CROSBY'S - SPRINGVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- E 886Nitrate · 850 ft
- ST ALOYSIUS RC CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MARKS FULL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MOBIL S/S 08-HQHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SNYDERS QUAKER STATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SUGAR CREEK #164Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BOB JOHNSON MOTORS INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Springville'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 Springville.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Springville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Springville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Springville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Springville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Springville — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (66 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Springville
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 Springville average
Your land is one point inside Springville
Everything above resolves to Springville 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 Springville Average
Springville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Springville
- ●One soil character for all of Springville
- ●Frost dates read at Springville's scale: May 2 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Springville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Springville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Springville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Springville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Springville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Springville average
How we know this about Springville
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 Springville’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 Springville
When does frost risk typically end in Springville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Springville typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Springville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Springville typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Springville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Springville sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 8, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Springville?
The federal record around Springville is a meaningful one — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Springville?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Springville's scale — its 5b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Springville'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 Springville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Springville's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,355 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Springville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Springville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 22 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Springville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Springville's boundary and the 2,355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Springville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Springvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Springville's 2,355 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 Springville's 2,355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Springville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Springville-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkSpringville sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides