St. Bonaventure, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in St. Bonaventure, 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 St. Bonaventure 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 St. Bonaventure — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. Bonaventure — the short answer
St. Bonaventure, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- 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 5b is St. Bonaventure's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Bonaventure's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. Bonaventure
Each reading below is measured for St. Bonaventure itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. Bonaventure runs about 166 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
MeasuredSt. Bonaventure 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 St. Bonaventure is in
St. Bonaventure sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at St. Bonaventure's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cattaraugus County.
What Grows in St. Bonaventure
Every plant below cleared St. Bonaventure's own zone 5b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. Bonaventure?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 St. Bonaventure
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from St. Bonaventure, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near St. Bonaventure
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. Bonaventure. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW YORK STATE POLICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ST BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ST BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- KWIK FILL M0037-069Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UNIMART CORPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2159Brownfields · 1700 ft
- CONSOLIDATED FREIGHTWAYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ADVANCED MONOLYTHIC CERAMICS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- HOME DEPOT USA INC HD6161Brownfields · 2200 ft
- BJS WHOLESALE CLUB #302Brownfields · 2400 ft
- CON-WAY EASTERN EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STROEHMANN LINE HAUL L/PUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Bonaventure'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 St. Bonaventure.
Total Sites
278
within ~10 miles of St. Bonaventure
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. Bonaventure
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. Bonaventure
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. Bonaventure, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of St. Bonaventure. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in St. Bonaventure
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 St. Bonaventure average
Your land is one point inside St. Bonaventure
Everything above resolves to St. Bonaventure 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 St. Bonaventure Average
St. Bonaventure Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across St. Bonaventure
- ●One soil character for all of St. Bonaventure
- ●Frost dates read at St. Bonaventure's scale: May 4 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Bonaventure's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. Bonaventure
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Bonaventure, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Bonaventure averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Bonaventure — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Bonaventure average
How we know this about St. Bonaventure
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 St. Bonaventure’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 St. Bonaventure
When does frost risk typically end in St. Bonaventure?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Bonaventure typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in St. Bonaventure?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. Bonaventure typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. Bonaventure?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Bonaventure sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 3, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. Bonaventure?
The federal record around St. Bonaventure is a meaningful one — 278 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 St. Bonaventure?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. Bonaventure's scale — its 5b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Bonaventure'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 St. Bonaventure’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at St. Bonaventure's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,220 acres it covers and 278 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Bonaventure's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. Bonaventure's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 17 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 278 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. Bonaventure, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. Bonaventure's boundary and the 1,220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. Bonaventure's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of St. Bonaventurelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. Bonaventure's 1,220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cattaraugus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. Bonaventure's 1,220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. Bonaventure you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 St. Bonaventure-wide figureread your own land →
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