Willsboro, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Willsboro, 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 Willsboro 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 Willsboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Willsboro — the short answer
Willsboro, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~186
- 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 Willsboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willsboro's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willsboro
Each reading below is measured for Willsboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWillsboro runs about 186 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
MeasuredWillsboro 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 Willsboro is in
Willsboro sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Willsboro's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Essex County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Willsboro
Every plant below cleared Willsboro's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willsboro?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Willsboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Willsboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Willsboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willsboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLSBORO CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WILLSBORO CENTRAL SCHOOL DIST.Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CLOSED MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WILLSBORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TOWN OF WILLSBORO HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ANJOU DEVELOPMENT CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- IMERYS WOLLASTONITE USA, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- REYNOLDS & SON CHEVROLET SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- IMERYS WOLLASTONITEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- D & H RAILROAD CANADIAN PACIFICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BYRDS COUNTRY STORE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VILLAGE MEAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willsboro'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 Willsboro.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Willsboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willsboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willsboro
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Willsboro
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 Willsboro average
Your land is one point inside Willsboro
Everything above resolves to Willsboro 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 Willsboro Average
Willsboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Willsboro
- ●One soil character for all of Willsboro
- ●Frost dates read at Willsboro's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willsboro's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willsboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willsboro, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willsboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willsboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willsboro average
How we know this about Willsboro
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 Willsboro’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 Willsboro
When does frost risk typically end in Willsboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willsboro typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Willsboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willsboro 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 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willsboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willsboro sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 9, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willsboro?
The federal record around Willsboro is a meaningful one — 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), 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 Willsboro?
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 Willsboro's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willsboro'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 Willsboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Willsboro's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,224 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willsboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willsboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 23 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willsboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willsboro's boundary and the 1,224 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Willsboro sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Willsboro 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 Willsboro's 1,224 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willsboro's 1,224 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willsboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,224 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 Willsboro-wide figureread your own land →