Waddington, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waddington, 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 Waddington 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 Waddington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waddington — the short answer
Waddington, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- 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 4b is Waddington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waddington's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waddington
Each reading below is measured for Waddington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaddington 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
MeasuredWaddington 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 Waddington is in
Waddington sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waddington's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Lawrence County.
What Grows in Waddington
Every plant below cleared Waddington'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 Waddington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Waddington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waddington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 88 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waddington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waddington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATLANTIC TESTING LABORATORIESBrownfields · 1000 ft
- KUNOCO FOOD MART IGAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ST 950Nitrate · 1900 ft
- ST 952Nitrate · 2000 ft
- NYSDP&R - COLES CREEK STATE PARKBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NEW YORK POWER AUTHORITYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1023860Brownfields · 2600 ft
- ST 959Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- WADDINGTON(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PIZZGI, INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ATLANTIC FACILITY NO. 60776Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ST 933Nitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waddington'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 Waddington.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Waddington
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waddington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waddington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waddington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Waddington — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Waddington
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 Waddington average
Your land is one point inside Waddington
Everything above resolves to Waddington 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 Waddington Average
Waddington Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Waddington
- ●One soil character for all of Waddington
- ●Frost dates read at Waddington's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waddington's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waddington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waddington, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waddington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waddington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waddington average
How we know this about Waddington
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 Waddington’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 Waddington
When does frost risk typically end in Waddington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waddington typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Waddington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waddington typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waddington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waddington sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 9, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waddington?
The federal record around Waddington shows 60 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Waddington?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waddington's scale — its 4b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waddington'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 Waddington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waddington's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,395 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waddington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waddington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 23 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waddington, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waddington's boundary and the 1,395 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 Waddington's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waddington 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 Waddington's 1,395 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waddington's 1,395 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waddington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,395 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Waddington-wide figureread your own land →