Bronx County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Bronx County lies within New York City metro — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bronx County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bronx County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bronx County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bronx County — the short answer
Bronx County, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 27K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 27K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Bronx County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bronx County's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Bronx County
Across a year, Bronx County accumulates about 3,611 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,375 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 60 of New York’s 62 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bronx County
Across Bronx County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Greenbelt, Chatfield, and Laguardia are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a cemented material surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bronx County
The USDA soil survey maps 16% of Bronx County as well drained — but another 4% drains differently: 3% moderately well drained, 1% very poorly drained.
Greenbelt is the most extensive named soil at 43% of mapped acres, then Chatfield (11%) and Laguardia (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bronx County
Each reading below is measured for Bronx County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bronx County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bronx County runs about pH 5.3–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBronx County runs about 258 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
MeasuredBronx County 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 Bronx County is in
Bronx County sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Bronx County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bronx County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 258-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New York profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bronx County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bronx County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Bronx County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle11 documented records
- monarch butterfly107 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bronx County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bronx County — 2,670 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Bronx County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bronx County
Closest first, across Bronx County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ONE HOUR DRIVE IN CLEANERSBrownfields · 850 ft
- 1651 LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 1675 COLDEN CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 1832 RADCLIFF AVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #7067Brownfields · 1400 ft
- KLEN REALTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 1865 BOGART AVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NYC DEPT OF EDUCATION - PS 83XBrownfields · 1700 ft
- 1960 WILLIAMSBRIDGE ROAD INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1067099Brownfields · 1900 ft
- 900 VAN NEST AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bronx County'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 Bronx County.
Total Sites
2,670
across Bronx County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Bronx County
Severity Distribution
across Bronx County
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Bronx County
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 Bronx County average
Your land is one point inside Bronx County
Everything above resolves to Bronx County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 27K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bronx County Average
Bronx County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bronx County
- ●One soil character for all of Bronx County
- ●Frost dates read at Bronx County's scale: Mar 19 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bronx County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bronx County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bronx County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bronx County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bronx County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bronx County average
How we know this about Bronx County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bronx County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bronx County
When does frost risk typically end in Bronx County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bronx County typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
How long is the growing season in Bronx County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bronx County sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 18, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bronx County?
The federal record around Bronx County is a meaningful one — 2,670 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,547), the nearest Brownfields 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.
Everything above is measured at Bronx County's scale — its 7b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bronx County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New York's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bronx County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Bronx County's own scale — its own ~258-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 2,670 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bronx County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bronx County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bronx CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 2,670 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bronx County's boundary and the 27,009 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bronx County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bronx County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bronx County — the ~258 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bronx County's 27,009 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 2,670 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bronx Countyread your own land →