Brewster, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brewster, 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 Brewster 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 Brewster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brewster — the short answer
Brewster, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 314 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 314 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 6b is Brewster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brewster's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brewster
Each reading below is measured for Brewster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrewster runs about 203 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
MeasuredBrewster sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Brewster is in
Brewster sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brewster's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Putnam County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brewster
Every plant below cleared Brewster's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brewster?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Brewster
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Brewster, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brewster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brewster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARDEN STREET SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CHURCH OF ST LAWRENCE OTOOLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BREWSTER SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- XTRA MART #1631-BREWSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MARRIT INVESTORS LTD.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- NEW YORK STATE ELECTSuperfund · 950 ft
- BREWSTER GAS & MART, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BREWSTER STATION - PARKING LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SUBURBAN PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DOMENICO CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- APARTMENTS @ 6 PUTNAM AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TRANSKRIT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brewster'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 Brewster.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brewster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brewster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brewster, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Brewster. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brewster
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 Brewster average
Your land is one point inside Brewster
Everything above resolves to Brewster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 314 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 Brewster Average
Brewster Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Brewster
- ●One soil character for all of Brewster
- ●Frost dates read at Brewster's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brewster's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brewster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brewster, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brewster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brewster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brewster average
How we know this about Brewster
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 Brewster’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 Brewster
When does frost risk typically end in Brewster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brewster typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Brewster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brewster typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brewster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brewster sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 16, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brewster?
The federal record around Brewster runs heavier than most — 954 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (462), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Brewster?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brewster's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brewster'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 Brewster’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brewster's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 314 acres it covers and 954 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brewster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brewster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 30 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 954 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brewster, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brewster's boundary and the 314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brewster sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brewsterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brewster's 314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brewster's 314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brewster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 314 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 Brewster-wide figureread your own land →
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