Wilmington, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wilmington, 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 Wilmington 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 Wilmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilmington — the short answer
Wilmington, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Wilmington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilmington's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilmington
Each reading below is measured for Wilmington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilmington runs about 160 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
MeasuredWilmington 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 Wilmington is in
Wilmington sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Wilmington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Wilmington
Every plant below cleared Wilmington's own zone 4b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilmington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Wilmington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wilmington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wilmington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilmington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITEFACE CHALET, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- FOUR SEASONS MOTOR LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WILMINGTON SVC CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HIGH VALLEY MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WILSON FARMS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LITTLE SUPER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THE INN AT WHITEFACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HOLIDAY LODGE NORTH POLE RESORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SANTAS WORKSHOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1032740Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- A S R C WHITEFACE MTN FS SUNYABrownfields · 1.3 mi
- TOWN OF WILMINGTON - WATER DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilmington'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 Wilmington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilmington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilmington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilmington, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Wilmington. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Wilmington
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 Wilmington average
Your land is one point inside Wilmington
Everything above resolves to Wilmington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Wilmington Average
Wilmington Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Wilmington
- ●One soil character for all of Wilmington
- ●Frost dates read at Wilmington's scale: May 2 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilmington's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilmington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilmington, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilmington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilmington average
How we know this about Wilmington
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 Wilmington’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 Wilmington
When does frost risk typically end in Wilmington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmington 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 Wilmington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmington typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilmington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilmington sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 25, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilmington?
The federal record around Wilmington shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wilmington?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilmington's scale — its 4b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilmington'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 Wilmington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wilmington's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,271 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilmington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilmington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 9 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilmington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilmington's boundary and the 5,271 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilmington's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wilmington 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 Wilmington's 5,271 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 Wilmington's 5,271 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilmington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,271 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 Wilmington-wide figureread your own land →