Barnum Island, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barnum Island, 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 Barnum Island 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 Barnum Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnum Island — the short answer
Barnum Island, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 554 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 554 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 7b is Barnum Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnum Island's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnum Island
Each reading below is measured for Barnum Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnum Island runs about 252 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
MeasuredBarnum Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Barnum Island is in
Barnum Island sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barnum Island's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nassau County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Barnum Island
Every plant below cleared Barnum Island's own zone 7b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnum Island?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Barnum Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Barnum Island, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barnum Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnum Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEDXWASTE NY LLC - DBA RED BAGSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- C & P SURFACEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- HESS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- USA PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JONES BEACH STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SMOOTH EDGE COLLISIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- J & J CLEANERSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NORTHFIELD PRECISION INSTS CORBrownfields · 2600 ft
- ISLAND PARK CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SWAN FAY CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PRO AUTO INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EF BARRETT POWER STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnum Island'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 Barnum Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnum Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnum Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnum Island, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 1,588 sites within ~10 miles of Barnum Island. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Barnum Island
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 Barnum Island average
Your land is one point inside Barnum Island
Everything above resolves to Barnum Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 554 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 Barnum Island Average
Barnum Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Barnum Island
- ●One soil character for all of Barnum Island
- ●Frost dates read at Barnum Island's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnum Island's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnum Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnum Island, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnum Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnum Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnum Island average
How we know this about Barnum Island
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 Barnum Island’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 Barnum Island
When does frost risk typically end in Barnum Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnum Island typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 11.
When is the first frost in Barnum Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnum Island typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnum Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnum Island sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 14, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnum Island?
The federal record around Barnum Island runs heavier than most — 3,378 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (1,588), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Barnum Island?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnum Island's scale — its 7b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnum Island'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 Barnum Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barnum Island's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 554 acres it covers and 3,378 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnum Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnum Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 28 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnum Island, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnum Island's boundary and the 554 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Barnum Island sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barnum Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barnum Island's 554 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nassau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nassau 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 Nassau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnum Island's 554 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnum Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 554 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 Barnum Island-wide figureread your own land →
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