Ardsley, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ardsley, 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 Ardsley 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 Ardsley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ardsley — the short answer
Ardsley, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 845 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 845 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 7a is Ardsley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ardsley's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ardsley
Each reading below is measured for Ardsley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArdsley runs about 241 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArdsley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Ardsley is in
Ardsley sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ardsley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westchester County.
What Grows in Ardsley
Every plant below cleared Ardsley's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ardsley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Ardsley
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ardsley, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ardsley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ardsley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIAMESHA WASTEWATER FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ARDSLEY PUMP STATIONBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #0300Brownfields · 1900 ft
- NEW ARDSLEY CLEANERSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- PUROCLEAN OF SOUTHERN WESTCHESTERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- RITE AID #10545Brownfields · 2100 ft
- R S A CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- TOWN CLEANERSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- GIAMPICCOLO AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BUCCIS IRVINGTON AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PARKS PRIDE CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GREENBURGH TOWN OF HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ardsley'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 Ardsley.
Total Sites
2,369
within ~10 miles of Ardsley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ardsley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ardsley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ardsley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ardsley — Brownfields (1,414 sites) and PFAS (20 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ardsley
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 Ardsley average
Your land is one point inside Ardsley
Everything above resolves to Ardsley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 845 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 Ardsley Average
Ardsley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ardsley
- ●One soil character for all of Ardsley
- ●Frost dates read at Ardsley's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ardsley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ardsley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ardsley, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ardsley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ardsley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ardsley average
How we know this about Ardsley
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 Ardsley’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 Ardsley
When does frost risk typically end in Ardsley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ardsley typically lands around Mar 27, 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 Apr 17.
When is the first frost in Ardsley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ardsley typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ardsley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ardsley sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 9, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ardsley?
The federal record around Ardsley is a meaningful one — 2,369 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,414), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ardsley?
From about Oct 24 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 Nov 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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ardsley's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ardsley'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 Ardsley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ardsley's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 845 acres it covers and 2,369 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ardsley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ardsley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 23 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,369 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ardsley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ardsley's boundary and the 845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ardsley's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ardsleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ardsley's 845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westchester 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 Westchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ardsley's 845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ardsley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 845 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ardsley-wide figureread your own land →
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