Washington Mills, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Washington Mills, 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 Washington Mills 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 Washington Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Washington Mills — the short answer
Washington Mills, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 433 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 433 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 Washington Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Washington Mills's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Washington Mills
Each reading below is measured for Washington Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWashington Mills runs about 181 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
MeasuredWashington Mills 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 Washington Mills is in
Washington Mills sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Washington Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oneida County.
What Grows in Washington Mills
Every plant below cleared Washington Mills's own zone 5b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Washington Mills?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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 Washington Mills
Survey cells within 31 miles of Washington Mills checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Washington Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Washington Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP SPILL 2408742Brownfields · 350 ft
- ROBERT OWENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RITE AID #10773Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WASHINGTON MILLS CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HARISON OIL CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #40167Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NYS THRUWAY AUTHORITYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MURPHY EXCAVATING CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP - UTICA SCRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- YAHNUNDASIS GOLF CLUBBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- NYSDEC - 3456 ONEIDA STREETBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- EDWARDS BODY SHOP, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Washington Mills'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 Washington Mills.
Total Sites
1,021
within ~10 miles of Washington Mills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Washington Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Washington Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Washington Mills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Washington Mills — CAFO (13 sites) and Superfund (19 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Washington Mills
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 Washington Mills average
Your land is one point inside Washington Mills
Everything above resolves to Washington Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 433 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 Washington Mills Average
Washington Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Washington Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Washington Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Washington Mills's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Washington Mills's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Washington Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Washington Mills, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Washington Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Washington Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Washington Mills average
How we know this about Washington Mills
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 Washington Mills’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 Washington Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Washington Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Washington Mills typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Washington Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Washington Mills 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Washington Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Washington Mills sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 9, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Washington Mills?
The federal record around Washington Mills is a meaningful one — 1,021 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (603), the nearest Brownfields 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 Washington Mills?
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 Washington Mills's scale — its 5b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Washington Mills'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 Washington Mills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Washington Mills's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 433 acres it covers and 1,021 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Washington Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Washington Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 23 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,021 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Washington Mills, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Washington Mills's boundary and the 433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Washington Mills's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Washington Mills 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 Washington Mills's 433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oneida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oneida 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 Oneida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Washington Mills's 433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Washington Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Washington Mills-wide figureread your own land →
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